‘Back To The Future’ reboot not happening (or is it?)

As far as Hollywood is concerned, no part of your childhood is sacred. It doesn’t matter how perfect any original film was, or how little need there might be for a sequel or a reboot, if someone in a production company believes there’s money to be made in creating one, they’ll go ahead and do it. We’ve seen reboots happen to countless franchises and film series over the course of the past ten years, some with more success than others. On occasion, fans have been pleased with the outcome. More often than not, though, they turn out to be a critical and commercial disappointment. Point Break and Charlie’s Angels, we’re looking at you in particular.

One childhood classic that’s so far managed to stay free of any threat of a reboot or an unnecessary sequel is Back to the Future. The story that needed to be told was told personally over the course of three highly entertaining films, and then it ended. Nothing more needed to be said. We didn’t need a prequel starring Doc Brown in his earlier years, and we don’t need a sequel showing us what the gang got up to years later. The tale is perfect in every way, and there’s so much affection for those films that it’s hard to imagine that anyone would want to sully them or interfere with them in any way – only now it seems that somebody has.

Earlier this year, someone with good digital and video-editing skills managed to put Spider-man star Tom Holland’s face on Michael J. Fox’s body using “deep fake” software, and briefly convinced a few people on the internet that Holland had been cast as McFly in a reboot of the original film. While most people were appalled at the idea, a few welcomed it and even started looking forward to seeing what Holland could do with the role.

Unsurprisingly, the question of what Holland thought of the viral video – which also starred Robert Downey Jr as Doc Brown – was put to the actor in an interview he did with the BBC recently. He confirmed he’d seen the clip, and it amused him – but he also gave away something that made the hair of die-hard fans stand on end.

Without specifying dates or times, Holland confirmed that he’d had ‘talks’ with people about appearing a remake of Back To The Future. He didn’t say who these talks were with, or how far they’d gone, but the fact that they happened at all is a strong indication that someone important somewhere in Hollywood has a project on their hands that they’re looking for a star for. Actors don’t get approached about projects like this unless a script has been written, and a studio is interested. The order of events is that the script comes first, the studio decides that they’re interested, and then stars to carry the script are sought out. If Holland was approached, then no matter how informal the conversation might have been, the concept was potentially already fairly well developed.

As dreadful as the prospect of someone walking over the grave of the original trilogy might be to most fans, we should know better than to be surprised by it. Back To The Future still does huge numbers for streaming services, and is a ratings hit whenever it shows up on television. A video game based on the franchise was made as recently as 2010, and a new one was announced last year. There’s an online slots game based on the first film making good money on online slots site. There’s even an ‘unofficial’ online slots game clearly based on the same film online with some sites, too. The whole industry of online slots is enormously competitive. If a game is online, it’s because people are playing it regularly. As large an outcry as there would inevitably be if a reboot was announced, it would still almost certainly make money at the box office.

If the reboot does go ahead, though, Holland won’t be in it. He enjoyed the deep fake video and joked that he’d agree to re-make the scene for real if Downey Jr was willing to pay for it, he also said that he felt the original films were almost perfect and he wouldn’t want to spoil them for anybody. Whoever approached him must have gone away disappointed – and for all we know, the conversation might have happened years ago. It could be the case that a reboot was written, green-lit, and then quietly scrapped again without anyone outside of the movie world finding out about it.

There might also be a logistical problem with remaking Back To The Future. The rights to the movies – plus any remakes or sequels to the films – remain with the actor and director who made the very first one. That’s Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. Both men are on record as saying that they have no plans to make any more Back To The Future films, and nor would they grant anybody else the right to do so while either one of them is still alive. Gale, who has approved a stage-show musical version of the first film, says that he’s been approached multiple times by movie executives who’ve offered him enormous amounts of money, but he’s turned them down every time and will continue to do so. Zemeckis shares his philosophy. While that might be frustrating for the minority of fans who would relish seeing someone else in the iconic roles of Doc Brown and Marty McFly, most fans will likely be grateful that the pair are safeguarding the integrity of their creations.

So, there we have it. There has been at least one Back To The Future reboot proposed, and Tom Holland may have been approached to star in it, but somehow that whole conversation potentially happened without the people who hold the rights to make such a film being notified. Unless there’s a dramatic change of heart on their part, no such movie will be made while they’re alive. In the future, though, when they’ve passed away, those protections will no longer exist. Tom Holland might be a little old to play Marty McFly by then – but we’re sure that won’t stop Hollywood’s latest fresh-faced new kid on the block giving it his best shot.