A Christmas Story Sequel Gets First Teaser Trailer for Ralphie's Return 39 Years Later
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Ralphie is ready to make his return in A Christmas Story Christmas.
In the nostalgia-heavy first teaser trailer for HBO Max's upcoming sequel to the 1983 classic A Christmas Story, familiar sets from the original film are shown as iconic lines from the movie play over a festive instrumental track.
At the end of the preview, protagonist Ralphie (Peter Billingsley), now all grown up, is shown in a close-up, putting on his glasses and smiling.
"Ho ho ho," fans can hear at the end of the trailer — a nod to the memorable moment in the first film where the mall Santa Claus pushes Ralphie down the slide. The scene plays out after Ralphie requests a highly coveted Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas and the Santa tells him, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid."
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Mgm/Ua/Kobal/Shutterstock A Christmas Story (1983)
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A Christmas Story Christmas is directed by Clay Kaytis. Aside from reprising his role as Ralphie, Billingsley, now 51, is producing the project. The film is written by Nick Schenk, who also serves as executive producer.
Alongside Billingsley, the film is also produced by Vince Vaughn through the pair's Wild West Picture Show Productions for Legendary and Warner Bros.
The original A Christmas Story is set in the 1940s and follows 9-year-old Ralphie and his desire to obtain a Red Ryder BB rifle for Christmas.
The forthcoming sequel, according to The Hollywood Reporter, "will take place in the 1970s and sees an adult Ralphie return to his house on Cleveland Street to deliver his kids a magical Christmas like the one he had growing up."
Mgm/Ua/Kobal/Shutterstock A Christmas Story (1983)
The outlet added that those working on the film hope to "recreate the same real-life tone of the first movie" by showing a grown Ralphie "reconnect with childhood friends" and "reconcile the passing of his Old Man" (Darren McGavin in the 1983 movie).
They also plan to include "callbacks to the initial film," which previously inspired several related projects including television film adaptations, a theatrical sequel, a direct-to-video sequel and stage play and musical adaptions.
Fox even aired A Christmas Story Live! in 2017, starring Matthew Broderick, Maya Rudolph, Chris Diamantopoulos, Jane Krakowski, Ana Gasteyer and more, featuring Andy Walken as young Ralphie.
A Christmas Story Christmas debuts Nov. 17 on HBO Max.
