For more than three decades, Home Alone has been the cinematic equivalent of tinsel — essential, nostalgic, and impossible to imagine the holidays without.
When it premiered in 1990, the film’s combination of slapstick and heartfelt sentiment turned Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister into a generational icon. Two years later, the sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York made him one of the biggest stars on the planet.
Four sequels followed, each introducing a new, lesser-known child to fend off new burglars in increasingly improbable situations, but none ever captured the same magic. While most fans like to pretend that nothing after Home Alone 2: Lost in New York exists, many still often wonder whether Macaulay Culkin will ever return to the franchise.
That question is likely to re-emerge this year thanks to Culkin’s unexpected return — not in cinemas, but on the small screen. Per Business Wire, in a new holiday campaign titled Home But Not Alone, created by global care provider Home Instead, the actor reprises his role as Kevin — this time as an adult son devoted to keeping his elderly mother safe.
It’s a clever, touching spin on the character that made him famous, and one that seems tailor-made to test the waters for something more.
Related: There's a ‘Home Alone' Roller Coaster Experience, and Fans LOVE It! : Disney Fanatic
The campaign, launched November 1 to mark Home Alone’s 35th anniversary, gives us a snapshot of what a true sequel could look like today. The Home But Not Alone shorts include Granddaughter Marley, Groceries, Your Turn, and The Delivery.
Director Jody Hill handles the shorts with a mix of humor and sincerity. As she puts it, “It goes beyond holiday nostalgia to connect with Kevin McCallister years later – as he faces the same concerns many of us have as our parents age.”
She adds, “It's real, it's funny, and it's deeply human.”
It’s not Culkin’s first revisit, either. In 2018, he starred in a Google Assistant ad that digitally re-created his iconic childhood home, and also in the darkly comic YouTube short DRYVRS, playing an older, traumatized version of Kevin. But Home But Not Alone is the first to feel truly canonical — an emotional, grounded continuation that raises an intriguing question: If Kevin can grow up, could Home Alone finally grow up with him?
Will you be watching the original Home Alone movies this winter? Let us know in the comments down below!
I’ve been wanting the same thing for Hocus Pocus and Home Alone. But Disney seems unwilling to give the people what they want (Snow White). Instead of the original crew, they’ll give us a new cast of checkboxes. Who look like they belong on the Disney Channel.