Lionsgate is gearing up to bring Leprechaun out of the rainbow.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, a new entry in the horror comedy series is in the works at the film studio. Felipe Vargas, who directed the 2020 short film Milk Teeth and is currently helming his feature debut Rosario, will direct a script from Mike Van Waes, writer of Disney’s incoming Lilo & Stitch reboot movie and the cancelled The Crooked Man spinoff for the Conjuring movies. Producing the film will be Vertigo Entertainment, the company from Barbarian and Don’t Worry Darling producer Roy Lee.
This new film in the series, which currently lacks an official name, is described as a reimagining of the series, which first began with the Mark Jones-directed (and written) film in 1993. Across eight films, the titular Leprechaun Lubdan Buttowski (played by Warwick Davis in the first six films, then Dylan Postl and Linden Porco in the last two) terrorizes anyone stupid enough to take his gold, and does anything he can to reclaim what was taken. While each movie has fairly low reviews, there’s a passionate fanbase for the whole thing, helped by SyFy airing the movies every St. Patrick’s Day. After 2018’s Leprechaun Returns, the movies went dormant, though there were some rumblings of a potential return in 2022 and even earlier this year. The only other hard news about the movie is that Davis is currently not expected to return as Lubdan.
In a statement given to THR, Lionsgate’s Erin Westerman said the studio was “ thrilled to be bringing [Leprechaun] back with a new vision. Roy [and co-producer Miri Yoon] are two of our most trusted producers, especially with this genre, and we’re excited by Felipe’s vision for the film as a director. In his hands, this movie should be very scary and a ton of fun.”