After 29 Years, Ralphie Parker Is Back In A Christmas Story Sequel Teaser
After 29 years, Ralphie Parker has returned ― and just in time for the holidays.
On Monday, HBO Max unveiled the first teaser for “A Christmas Story Christmas,” the hotly anticipated follow-up to the 1983 holiday classic “A Christmas Story.”
Viewers can catch a peek at the Parker family’s living room, looking a bit worse for the wear, in the footage. The clip ends with a shot of actor Peter Billingsley slipping his glasses into place as a grown-up Ralphie.
Watch the teaser for “A Christmas Story Christmas” below.
Due out Nov. 17, “A Christmas Story Christmas” takes place in the 1970s, and finds Ralphie returning to his childhood home for the holidays, now with his own family in tow. It’s directed by Clay Kaytis, whose credits include 2016’s “The Angry Birds Movie.”
In addition to Billingsley, actors Ian Petrella, Zack Ward, Scott Schwartz and R.D. Robb will reprise their roles from the original film, while newcomers to the cast include River Drosche, Julie Hagerty, Erinn Hayes and Julianna Layne.
Despite mostly positive reviews, “A Christmas Story” was a box office disappointment upon its initial release. The movie gradually started gaining popularity on television two years later, when it began airing on HBO. In 1997, it received its own Christmas Day marathon showcase on TNT and, later, TBS.
The movie spawned a pair of sequels, 1994’s “It Runs in the Family” and 2012’s “A Christmas Story 2,” which featured almost entirely different casts. A musical adaptation of the original movie debuted on Broadway in 2012, featuring songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul of “Dear Evan Hansen” and “The Greatest Showman.”
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Billingsley was only 11 when he was cast as Ralphie for the original film. He continued to act throughout the 1980s and ’90s and spent time behind the camera as well, making his feature directorial debut in 2009 with “Couples Retreat,” a romantic comedy starring Vince Vaughn. (He also made his way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as all working actors eventually must, popping up in “Iron Man” and “Spider-Man: Far From Home.”)
Speaking to Variety in 2018, Billingsley recalled working with “A Christmas Story” director Bob Clark and screenwriter Jean Shepherd, who adapted the script from his 1966 novel “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash.”
“It was such a challenge to get off the ground because it’s an odd movie probably on paper,” Billingsley recalled. “Jean was often trying to give me notes. Bob would run up and say, ‘Stop talking to my actor.’ It all came from what was clearly this great place of really having a specific vision.”
