A Christmas Story Getting Official Sequel With Original Star Returning

The holidays may have just ended a few weeks ago, but the Christmas Season is just getting started over at Warner Bros. Alongside Legendary, WB is officially moving forward with a sequel to A Christmas Story, the iconic holiday film from 1983. The story of Ralphie is set to continue, and original star Peter Billingsley will be reprising his role for the first time in nearly 40 years. Billingsley is also set to produce alongside Vince Vaughn for Wild West Picture Show Productions.

This long-awaited sequel is set to be titled A Christmas Story Christmas, and it will pick up 30 years after the events of the original movie. Ralphie still has fond memories of the "magical" Christmases he experienced as a child, so he decides to take his own children back to his old family house for the holidays. The film is set in the 1970s and will follow the same "real-life' tone from the original. Ralphie's Old Man has passed away in the time since the first Christmas Story and the now-grown-up Ralphie will need to reconcile with that loss as he heads back home.

Warner Bros. and Legendary have tapped director Clay Kaytis to helm the new Christmas Story, and his holiday pedigree should offer plenty of hope to fans. After spending years as an animator at Disney, and helming the Angry Birds Movie, Kaytis directed Kurt Russell in The Christmas Chronicles for Netflix. Gran Torino and The Mule scribe Nick Schenk is writing the screenplay for the sequel.

Despite being set in Cleveland, production on A Christmas Story Christmas will take place in Hungary. Filming is scheduled to begin next month. No release date has been set for A Christmas Story Christmas, its February production start does make a holiday 2022 release seem like a possibility. 

A Christmas Story was first released in theaters in 1983 and was a smash-hit for MGM. It made nearly $70 million at the box office on a budget of just over $3 million. In the years since its release, A Christmas Story has become one of the most beloved holiday films around, a staple of the season for many households around the country. TBS even hosts the 24 Hours of A Christmas Story Marathon each year, running the film on repeat from the evening of Christmas Eve all the way through Christmas Day.

Are you excited to see another Christmas Story? Let us know in the comments!