Thirty-five years ago, Kevin McCallister famously made his family disappear, and now, in 2025, the original star, Macaulay Culkin, has a vision for his character’s return. As part of his Nostalgia Night with Macaulay Culkin tour, the former child actor pitched an original concept for a new Home Alone sequel that would see an adult Kevin facing a trap-setting son, turning the holiday classic into a dark, metaphorical comedy.
An Adult Spin on a Holiday Classic
Culkin mused that the new story would star Kevin as either a widower or a divorcee, raising a child while struggling to connect with him. The premise flips the script entirely: “I’m working really hard and I’m not really paying enough attention and the kid is kind of getting miffed at me and then I get locked out,” Culkin explained. In a poetic twist, “[Kevin’s son] won’t let me in… and he’s the one setting traps for me.”
While the original films by Chris Columbus and John Hughes were built on slapstick laughs and childhood wish fulfillment—despite the underlying darkness of Kevin’s abandonment and the threat of the Wet Bandits—Culkin’s pitch directly addresses the melancholy noticed by the now-grown audience. Adult viewers of the original often focus less on the traps and more on how the McCallisters’ wealth and regular family vacations failed to soothe the clear bitterness and frustration among family members.
The Metaphor of the House
Culkin believes that a sequel about Kevin as a disappointed adult attempting to connect with his own child makes perfect sense for the character we first met in the early 1990s. It also provides a stronger thematic core than the subsequent four Home Alone films that followed his exit from the franchise—including one featuring a pre-teen Scarlett Johansson and the 2021 Disney+ entry.
For Culkin, the main issue with previous sequels is their misunderstanding of the central theme of the first two films. His version would emphasize that the house itself is a metaphor for the relationship between father and son. The adult Kevin’s attempts to get inside his own home would be an allegory for a “‘get let back into son’s heart’ kind of deal.”
Though he admitted the pitch is his “closest elevator pitch,” Culkin concluded that he is “not completely allergic to [a Home Alone sequel],” provided it is “the right thing.” Given the complexity and emotional weight of his concept, it remains to be seen if Hollywood will be careful enough to grant the original star his wish.
