It will be 25 years in January since the theatrical release of Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Yet, in a world of endless Hollywood remakes and reboots, somehow Gizmo and his nasty nemeses have dodged the bullet — and not for lack of trying.

But Joe Dante, director of the two Gremlins films, says there are a few reasons why new installments of his horror comedy franchise haven't seen the light of day since 1990. According to the filmmaker, there are two major hoops to jump through to bring Gremlins back to life.

"I am not involved with it," he told The Playlist. "It’s something that we hear about every six months for the past five to 10 years. I know there have been many attempts to do it. It’s tricky because the rights are jointly owned by Warner Bros and [Steven Spielberg’s] Amblin, so you’ve got to jump through two hurdles to get your idea approved."

Which isn't to say that people aren't trying. Dante says he's aware of some "very well known people" who have attempted to make another Gremlins movie, and that plans are still in the works to get it off the ground.

"I do know, however, that there’s a script being written now," he said, "and the tricky thing is that I’m not sure that the people making the movie now understand what the original appeal was of the first movie, which was not beloved by the studio until it started making money."

“When they started making a sequel, they didn't understand what we had done on the original to make it successful,” he continued. “So they hired me to come back and make the sequel. Because nobody understood it. So it will be very interesting to see what they come up with.”