Home Alone turns 35 this year. This is one of the first movies that I can remember seeing in theaters when I was six years old, and now I watch it with my kids every year. Sometimes, we even watch both the first and second movies multiple times because we all love them so much. There are now six films in the franchise, but only the first two are centered around Macaulay Culkin, Catherine O’Hara, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern. We’ve watched all of them, but we don’t f-ck with the non-Kevin McCallister ones because the magic just simply isn’t there.
Last year, Macaulay began a holiday season tour called “A Nostalgic Night with Macaulay Culkin,” where he screens Home Alone and does a Q&A. At one event last year, he confirmed that Joe Pesci accidentally bit his finger during a rehearsal, and that left a scar. This year’s tour has brought even more juicy news. At a stop this past weekend in Long Beach, CA, Macaulay revealed that he’s finally down to play Kevin McC again, but there would have to be specific “conditions.” He even shared his own idea for a plot: This time, he’s in the Marv/Harry position while his own fictional child is setting the booby traps.
“I wouldn’t be completely allergic to it,” the 45-year-old star of the 1990 holiday classic said at his A Nostalgic Night with Macaulay Culkin tour on Sunday, Nov. 22. The event, held at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center in Long Beach, Calif., celebrated the 35th anniversary of Home Alone.
“It would have to be just right,” Culkin said of a follow-up to the 1990 comedy and its 1992 sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, in which he starred as abandoned youngster Kevin McCallister. (Third and fourth installments and a 2021 Disney+ reboot have followed, all with different casts.)
“I kind of had this idea,” he revealed, explaining how Kevin’s story might continue decades later. “I’m either a widower or a divorcee. I’m raising a kid and all that stuff. I’m working really hard and I’m not really paying enough attention and the kid is kind of getting miffed at me and then I get locked out.”
Kevin’s son, he continued, “won’t let me in.” Instead of robbers like Joe Pesci’s Harry and Daniel Stern’s Marv, “he’s the one setting traps for me.”
Furthermore, “the house is some sort of metaphor for our relationship,” added Culkin, a “‘get let back into his heart’ kind of deal. That’s the closest elevator pitch that I have. I’m not completely allergic to it, the right thing.”
Also at A Nostalgic Night with Macaulay Culkin, the actor discussed legally changing his middle name for a comedic bit and how his two sons, who he shares with fiancée Brenda Song, don’t recognize him when they watch Home Alone. “They have no idea that I’m Kevin,” he shared.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Home Alone’s original director Chris Columbus weighed in on another potential sequel. “I think Home Alone really exists as, not at this timepiece, but it was this very special moment, and you can’t really recapture that,” the filmmaker said. “I think it’s a mistake to try to go back and recapture something we did 35 years ago. I think it should be left alone.”
I shared this article in a group text with two other friends who also watch the first two Home Alone movies every year, and we debated Macaulay’s idea. Friend #1 shut it down immediately, proclaiming, ”I’m with Columbus. It’s a funny idea, but it’s better left alone.” Friend #2, however, said that she was intrigued and wanted to hear more. Personally, I go back and forth. I like Macaulay’s idea in which he plays the guy trying to get into the house. After 35 years of identifying with the kid who defended his home with broken ornaments, a blow torch, and a tarantula, it’s intriguing to turn the tables. I’d also be open to hearing pitches in which Kevin becomes his mother and is simply trying to get back after realizing that he left his own kid home alone. That may be unoriginal/cliche, but it would also bring things full circle.
Photos credit: Dave Starbuck/Future Image/Cover Images, Getty, Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon
I love how he loves Brenda. Lovely couple. Has he always embraced the Home Alone legacy like this? Recently, he seems to really have fun with it and it’s great. It looks like he is in a good place and I’m happy for him.
Came here to say the same thing.
He seems to adore his wife(?) and children and seems so happy.
I would watch him as adult Kevin no matter how bad it is, and i don’t even watch Home Alone annually. I was in college maybe when it came out, wrong age to give a crap about it.
But i find him so delightful, i would watch him get locked out by his kids who are annoyed with him.
My favorite Mac movie is Changeland, which Brenda is also in.
I know we are living in a world PLEASE GOD NO NOT AGAIN but it is true that there are some stories that have viable new chapters, and this is one of them. You have a tremendous interior backstory–a man who was left behind as a little boy–in tandem with a strong present life plot–the son is alone and the clock is ticking on his safety. It works.
I agree – there’s a lot of potential material here. I’d love if the whole family came back to the house and Kevin is now a Dad. Something to do with his kids doing something like what he did. Nothing will be as good as the original, but it could be cute!
In this digital world the kid would just change his dad’s passwords and bankrupt him buying power ups.
I think it’d be cool if there was a companion to the original films that had the kids all come together, helping their mom clean out the house after their dad’s death – you know, packing up the house and getting it ready to sell.
I suggest this because John Heard, the actor who played dad Peter McCallister dies some years back.
I actually think this could be cool depending how it’s done.
And I echo the comment above – love seeing him happy with his wife.
I love the fact that his kids watch the movies and have no idea that he is Kevin. I’d be open to it. Maybe it could turn out well. At this point, I’m just used to nostalgia sequels not being as good as the originals. It would be really about who they could cast as the kid and would they have that same spark that Macauley had at that age. And also could they just film the thing and not make it all cgi and fake looking bc that might ruin it for me.
I actually love the pitch and it could be really fantastic with the right script. And I adored Hocus Pocus 2, so I do think sequels that revisit the world decades later can be done well.
Get a good writer, decent script, and competent director (it feels like theses should be a given but we all know better) and I would be on board with this idea. Some re-boots have taken the original premise and done something fresh with it that I love (Jumanji).
Yes, BUT ONLY if they can actually make it good. The idea itself is a good place to start and a concept that can truly work. The issue with these things is usually the casting, writing, production quality, and direction just aren’t at the same level as the original. If they can jump as high as the original two, then hell yeah.
If the script was good, that would be a really fun movie. And has his real life brother Kieran back as his cousin. And if Catherine O’Hara was game to play his mom again that would be perfect. They could forget one of his kids.
yes!!!
They should make that.
I love this full circle idea… complete with Maureen back as grandma. Please let this happen
I think there is a lot of potential here for a follow up. I felt the sequel to A Christmas Story captured enough of the original nostalgia and was a nice enough movie on its own.