When Back to the Future director, Robert Zemeckis, was asked about a remake to his classic time-travel film, he said:

“I mean, to me, that’s 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?”

But then, when asked about another of his classic films, Forrest Gump, which indeed will be remade with Jonah Hill:

“You know when you got a film as successful and as influential as Forrest Gump, there’s this unspoken rule in Hollywood that you’ve got to make a remake and relaunch the story for a new generation. I am not ashamed of this, it’s what we do in Hollywood and it’s a great opportunity to create a new exciting version.”

Whether he was misquoted, or plain contradicting himself, I wish it was the time-travel epic he was optimistic about. Both Back to the Future and Forrest Gump are in my list of favorite movies. They both play with a span of decades, and show the main characters at different points in their lives. We’re getting the unneeded Forrest Gump remake, so we’ll see how that turns out. But since another BTTF is over Zemeckis’s “dead body,” lets travel to another dimension where it’s not.

Remake

In a re-recorded ending to Part One, that wasn’t in the theatrical release but on the VHS, Doc told Marty that he had to go back to the future. Jennifer, whom Doc said should come along, had a new face. The reality was that Claudia Wells was recast with Elisabeth Shue. But a good theory implies that this was a first of many alternate timelines they would encounter.

The future they arrive to is October 21, 2015. Now that we saw that future come and go, presented by a reunion of the actors, we noticed that we’re living in an alternate reality from what the movie proposed. We don’t have hover boards (no matter how hard people are trying to make them), we don’t have flying cars (no matter how hard people are trying to make them), and the Jaws franchise ended with the fourth installment in 1987, Jaws: The Revenge. Instead, we have smart phones and tablets, cars that merely park themselves, and a number of Hunger Games and Harry Potter movies.

Most remakes set themselves in modern day. But there are some that keep the original era (see Starsky & Hutch). Since we were faced with a different version of 2015, I’d like to see a new future, past, and present. What would it look like if Marty McFly lived in 2015, and traveled back to 1985? And then to 2035?

Sequel

There have been many pseudo-sequels. Back to the Future: The Game, which you could get for X-Box or PlayStation, Marty met a teenage Doc. Back to the Future: The Ride, at Universal Studios, chased Biff to the dinosaurs. There’s also the cartoon, which aired from 1991 to 1993, which had live-action segments with Christopher Lloyd. Though, Doc’s voice in the actual cartoon was done by Dan Castellaneta, better known as Homer Simpson. And most recently, IDW has been publishing comic books written by Bob Gale, screenwriter of the original trilogy. Looks like these pseudo-sequels will be the closest thing we’ll get to a Back to the Future Part 4.

But if it was actually green-lit after all these years, what would it look like? Instead of a Forrest Gump remake, I actually wanted to see Haley Joel Osment reprise his role as Forrest Gump, Jr. Star Wars: The Force Awakens had Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher chaperone a new generation. Ford had a big part, but I don’t foresee Michael J. Fox doing the same. Back in Time, a documentary on Netflix, showed recent interviews with the actor. I like that Scrubs gave him the role of a doctor with OCD. But, would it be distasteful to say that time-travel messed Marty up? Star Wars and Vacation had a new generation lead the story, yet showed the fate of the originals via cameos. Christopher Lloyd said he’d be down to return. But he’s even getting too feeble for time-travel.

Back to the Future: The Animated Series featured Doc’s kids. Remember Jules and Verne on the train at the end of Part 3? A new generation would place them as the heroes. Unlike Marty, they would be well accustomed to the ways of time-travel and dimension-hopping. We would see this adventure through the eyes of a couple of experts. Perhaps they would travel to a dimension where Goldie Wilson was a dictator, instead of “Maaay-or.” Or Flea from The Red Hot Chili Peppers could reprise Needles for the villain.

Which Zemeckis quote do you subscribe to? I prefer the optimism. But he may be right about the integrity of a classic. The remake, or reboot, has became a relentless fad. Some have blown the original out of the water – and some sank miserably. But the goal has always been to stretch more out of what we loved. I love Back to the Future; it’s given me many pleasant memories. From “Johnny B. Goode,” to the “Wake-Up Juice,” to the cartoon. But like everyone else, I don’t want to see those pleasant memories ruined. I now understand the apprehensions behind the Star Wars prequels.

What do you think? Sound off below!