Josh Gad Reveals The 'Honey, I Shrunk The Kids' Legacy Sequel Has Stalled Out

Called 'Shrunk' he would've starred with the franchise's original and since-retired star Rick Moranis

Frozen and Central Park star Josh Gad gave something of a surprising update on Monday: The status of Shrunk, the Honey, I Shrunk The Kids legacy sequel that had been announced in 2018.

“A lot of u ask me what’s going on with this film,” the Avenue 5 actor tweeted “Truth is, we were inches from starting, and then COVID hit, inches from starting again & then my schedule exploded with conflicts, inches from starting again & budget got the best of us.” The timeline certainly adds up. After its February 2018 development announcement, called a reboot with a possible Disney+ destination, the next update was in March 2019, when the true nature of the film was revealed and shifted to a theatrical release. Gad’s casting as Nick Szalinski, Wayne’s son previously played by Robert Olivieri, was revealed. In December, series-starting director Joe Johnston was in negotiations to return to direct the new film. The coaxing of Moranis to unretire begins in January 2020. Johnston signs on then, and Moranis does so in February. But then March 2020 hits and the tumult begins. The last update had been in January 2022 that Gad and Moranis had started “collaborating again” before missing the early 2022 goal to start shooting.

Gad’s tweet also featured an unofficial poster from BossLogic for the film, which would have been (and might still be) produced by David Hoberman and written by Todd Rosenberg. The plot sees Nick has become a scientist and inventor, like his father. He accidentally shrinks his son and two daughters to five inches tall, and they have to deal with it until a solution comes. The tweet concludes by encouraging those who want the movie to start bothering Disney about it.

The original movie trilogy started with 1989’s Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, where Wayne shrunk Nick, his sister Amy, and two neighbor kids to insect size and they had to do their best to survive. The 1992 sequel Honey, I Blew Up the Kid saw his preschool-aged brother Adam grow to 100 feet tall, and 1997’s direct-to-video Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves had Wayne, wife Diane, brother Gordon, and sister-in-law Patti being the ones shrunk.

It was recently announced that Gad will be reuniting with his The Book of Mormon co-star Andrew Rannells for a new musical Gutenberg! The Musical, about the inventor of the printing press. Broadway previews begin September 15 for a 20-week engagement.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Josh Gad (1, 2)