A “Home Alone” revival is officially back in serious conversation, and this time it isn’t just internet chatter.
Entertainment journalist Matt Belloni reported on July 28 that Macaulay Culkin was recently spotted on the Disney lot in Burbank, and that the studio is reportedly eager to bring him back into the fold. Per Belloni, Disney is “salivating” over the idea of Culkin returning as Kevin McCallister, and insiders say the pitch on the table is strong enough that the studio is willing to let him attach it to a passion project of his own.
According to TVInsider, Belloni added that people who have heard the concept describe it as “a really good idea for a ‘Home Alone’ reboot,” one he believes could be “gigantic” for the studio given the franchise’s staying power every holiday season.
The concept itself has actually been public for a while. Culkin first laid it out in November 2025 during a stop on his “A Nostalgic Night With Macaulay Culkin” tour. He described Kevin as a widower or divorced dad who is “working really hard” and “not really paying enough attention” to his own son. In his pitch, the roles flip completely. Instead of Kevin fending off intruders, he becomes the one locked out of his own house, forced to break back in while dodging traps set by his own kid. Culkin called the house itself “some sort of metaphor” for the strain between him and his son.
Culkin has stayed busy with Disney in other ways too. He recently voiced a role in “Zootopia 2” and joined the second season of “Fallout” on Prime Video, so his relationship with the studio has clearly stayed warm even without a “Home Alone” deal on paper.
Not everyone is on board with the idea of a “Home Alone” revival, though, and the loudest skeptic is the man who made the original work in the first place. Chris Columbus, who directed the first two films, addressed the reboot question with Entertainment Tonight back in August 202.
“I think ‘Home Alone’ really exists as, not at this timepiece, but it was this very special moment, and you can’t really recapture that,” Columbus said, adding, “I think it’s a mistake to try to go back and recapture something we did 35 years ago. I think it should be left alone.”
His comments carry extra weight given what’s already happened to the franchise without him. “Home Alone” and its 1992 follow up, “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” were both Culkin led hits, but the series carried on without either him or Columbus through “Home Alone 3” in 1997, “Home Alone 4” in 2002, “Home Alone: The Holiday Heist” in 2012, and the Disney Plus reboot “Home Sweet Home Alone” in 2021.
Any potential “Home Alone” revival would also arrive under genuinely bittersweet circumstances for longtime fans. Catherine O’Hara, who played Kevin’s mother Kate in the first two films, died on January 30 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 71. John Heard, who played Kevin’s father Peter, died back in 2017. Their absences mean that even if this new version moves forward, the family at the center of the original movies could never fully reassemble.
For now, nothing is official. Culkin hasn’t confirmed a deal, and Disney hasn’t announced a project. But between the podcast report, the studio’s reported enthusiasm, and a pitch Culkin has clearly been sitting on since last year, the Home Alone revival conversation feels closer to real than it has in decades.
Whether Disney can actually pull it off without the family that made the original click is a different question entirely.
