Michael J. Fox Has the Best Answer When Asked About the Back to the Future Reboot

The Back to the Future franchise remains one of the most beloved film trilogies of all time, and outside media like comic books, video games, and an animated series have done their best to carry on the adventures of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), and their friends and families. Ever since the third movie came out in 1990, fans have wondered if the filmmakers — or even somebody new — will ever return to the world of Hill Valley. In a rarity for Hollywood, the property remains under the control of filmmaker Robert Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale, who brought the original Back to the Future script around Hollywood and made it their pet project.

Zemeckis and Gale — colloquially called “The Bobs” — have long insisted that they have no interest in doing more Back to the Future, especially not without Fox and Lloyd. That doesn’t stop the question from coming up periodically, including in a recent interview with Fox, where he offered his unique perspective.

“I’m not fanatical,” Fox told Variety. “Do what you want. It’s your movie. I got paid already.”

“I don’t think it needs to be,” Fox added. “I think Bob and Bob have been really smart about that. I don’t think it needs rebooting because are you going to clarify something? You’re going to find a better way to tell the story? I doubt it.”

Fox had previously said that, if they had to return to the series, they might be able to differentiate the new movies a little by making the lead of the new story a high school girl. Still, he hasn’t ever been too upbeat about the idea of sequels and remakes.

The Bobs “have no plans or desires to make another Back to the Future movie — not a Part IV, or a remake of Part 1. Nor does Universal or [producers] Amblin [Entertainment] have any such plans,” Gale told the BTTF website in a 2010 interview. “How do we know? Because, per our contracts with these companies, no Back to the Future sequel or remake can even be scripted without discussing it with us first. No such discussions have taken place. We are very proud of the trilogy as it stands and we want to leave it as is.”

After saying that a sequel or remake “can’t happen until Bob and I are dead,” Zemeckis — also known for directing Forrest Gump and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? — holds no illusions that Universal will continue to honor the Bobs’ wishes any longer than they have to.

“And then I’m sure they’ll do it, unless there’s a way our estates can stop it,” he told The Telegraph. “I mean, to me, [a remake is] outrageous. Especially since it’s a good movie. It’s like saying ‘Let’s remake Citizen Kane. Who are we going to get to play Kane?’ What folly, what insanity is that? Why would anyone do that?”