Is Home Sweet Home Alone a Reboot or Sequel?

Home Seet Home Alone is now streaming on Disney+. However, this new entry in the Home Alone franchise when it debuted on the streaming service during the DIsney+ Day showcase event. Many moviegoers weren’t expecting to see a new Home Alone get released – and still may not understand how the new installment connected to the original Home Alone movies or their less-popular sequel Home Alone 3 (1997), not to mention the TV film knock-offs, Home Alone 4: Tacking Back the House (2002), and Home Alone:  The Holiday Heist (2012). 

Well, Comicbook.com had the chance to sit down with the stars of Home Sweet Home Alone and clarify where this new installment fits into the franchise. Archie Yates stars as Max Mercer, the boy who ends up being left ‘home alone’ this time, and Aisling Bea plays his mother Carol Mercer. When the two actors spoke to Comicbook.com, they were quick to stay on the right (read: legal) side of things: 

[Speaking in tandem] “I think we’re legally bound to say that it is not a remake, It is not a sequel. It is not a reboot, it’s not a spin.”

As the more experienced actor in the business, Bea quickly provided some added explanation: “Our lawyers didn’t tell us what we’re allowed to say about the word “spinoff,” but it’s a “remix.” So it’s like a new movie, and so it feels less daunting than if we were involved in a remake because the characters are very different.”

At this point, it’s probably easier to think of Home Alone as being a simple franchise brand name, centered around a simple premise: rambunctious young kid gets left at home alone, and has to defend said home (or whatever kind of booby-trapped locale) from robbers/invaders. Words like “reboot,” “remake” or “sequel” no longer seem to apply – unless Macaulay Culkin himself returns for a direct sequel (which, please do…). 

Really, after the way the franchise has been slogging around bargain bins with its knock-off TV movie installments, Home Sweet Home Alone getting a major feature on Disney+ is arguably a big step up. 

Max Mercer, a mischievous and resourceful young boy, has been left behind while his family is in Japan for the holidays. So when a married couple attempting to retrieve a priceless heirloom sets their sights on the Mercer family’s home, it is up to Max to protect it from the trespassers, and he will do whatever it takes to keep them out. The reboot promises hilarious hijinks of epic proportions, and despite the absolute chaos, Max eventually comes to realize that there really is no place like home sweet home.

Home Sweet Home Alone is now streaming on Disney+.