In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Leprechaun, Hulu has added all eight films to the streaming platform. Lionsgate recently revealed that an official reboot is in the works, which is no surprise given the franchise's long-standing success. The film series centers around a vengeful leprechaun and the unlucky victims who end up on the receiving end of his murderous rampage. Despite its gruesome scenes and dark premise, the subtext and snide one-liners allow the film to fall under the comedy-horror umbrella.

Mark Jones is the creator of Leprechaun and the writer-director of the 1993 film. While Leprechaun is his most well-known project, he has also worked on titles such as Rumpelstiltskin, Riptide, and Nightman. The cast is led by Friends' Jennifer Aniston with Warwick Davis, Ken Olandt, Mark Holton, Robert Hy Gorman, and Shay Duffin rounding out the ensemble.

RELATED: Every Leprechaun Movie, Ranked Worst To Best

Mark Jones chats exclusively with Screen Rant about Leprechaun's legacy, working with Jennifer Aniston in the early stages of her career, and the film's lasting impact on the horror genre. Note: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, and the film covered here would not exist without the labor of the actors in the union.

Mark Jones Talks Leprechaun

Screen Rant: When you first created Leprechaun in the 90s, did you ever imagine that you would be setting the stage for such a long-running movie franchise?

Mark Jones: No, and if I knew it, I would have made a better deal for all of the sequels. Listen, it's been taking care of me for 30 years, and it's pretty amazing. I remember I said to my producing partner, "What are the odds that we'll get a sequel?" and then he goes, "Well, if it does well in video, maybe they'll do a sequel," and I go, "That'd be great to actually have two pictures."

This thing won't stop. The fans, I think, understood what I was trying to do. It's kind of a comedy-horror not to be taken so seriously. It hit a chord. There are eight-year-old kids that I've met that love Leprechaun. They're literally eight years old, and they've watched them, and now they're going to be able to see them on Hulu. So it finds a new audience every few years. It just won't quit.

What first inspired you to make a horror film centered around a leprechaun?

Mark Jones: I was a writer in television, and I wanted to direct. This was like, late 80s, early 90s, and I said, "If you write a low-budget horror movie, you could probably get it funded." They were doing a lot of those direct-to-video. I never expected it to go theatrical like it did. I just figured no one's done a leprechaun. They've done Friday the 13th, they've done Halloween, they did Valentine's Day. They did all these horror movies that had marquee value, but no one did a leprechaun for St. Patty's Day.

I know they're a little bit evil. I looked at the history. I wrote the script, and the studio, TriMark, at the time, said, "No one's done a horror about a leprechaun. Let's look at it, and let's do it." I think it helped me get my first directing gig. That's what I wanted it to do. Plus, I liked doing horror, and I liked the fact that everybody knew of leprechauns, but no one had done the movie. I was surprised no one's done a horror movie on a leprechaun before I did.

Leprechaun was also one of Jennifer Aniston’s first major projects. This came out before Friends premiered. How was getting a chance to work with her so early on in her career and seeing everything she’s done since?

Mark Jones: We were going for really unknowns. She had done, I think, a little bit of episodic television, but I didn't know who she was, and she came in and read for us. There really was something about her. And I've said this a number of times, she came into the room, and she just sort of had a charisma. She was very good. She was my choice. I must have seen 25–30 girls, and I said, "She's my favorite." I saw another 25 after, and I kept going back to her.

She was great to work with. It was her first movie. It was really a co-starring role. She was excited. This helped her, in the sense that it got her a feature that did get a theatrical, and then she got Friends the next year. I like to take credit for getting her Friends, but I'm not sure that it's accurate. At the time, she loved it, and she was great to work with, and a professional, and she was adorable. I know she'll never forgive me for putting her in Leprechaun, but at the time, she was excited. It worked out okay.

What do you enjoy most about the different iterations of the character of the leprechaun and how it’s evolved over the years?

Mark Jones: Obviously, Warwick had that character all the way through number six, and it kept kind of evolving. I'm happy they make them. I still have an interest in all of them. Number seven, Origins, they didn't use Warwick, and it was just a straight horror movie, and he had no personality—I thought that was the wrong way to go. I think I was correct because it did not resonate with the fans. It wasn't really the leprechaun character.

Then they did Leprechaun Returns, number eight, and they went right back to the first one that I did and even brought in the Ozzie character, Mark Holton, to reprise his role. I think that was the way to go, and I hear they're starting to develop number nine, and I think they're going to go with the original character and stuff. I think it got more fun, and the fans love the picture. I was very happy. I think number seven just was not the right tone.

Given that this is the 30th anniversary, it’s obviously been a while since this was filmed. However, is there a scene or a moment on set that sticks out to you when you look back on the making of the movie?

There's a famous scene at the end, where Robert Gorman, Alex, shoots the slingshot at the leprechaun, and he says, "F*ck you Lucky Charms," and the studio did not want me to put that in. I said, "Come on, that's going to get a cheer in the theater." They wanted me to do all kinds of things. I remember shooting a number of different versions without doing the line that was in the script that I wrote. And then I shot mine, and I moved the camera forward, and I made it a better delivery. They ended up testing it, and the audience loved it. I remember talking to my producing partner going, "I can't believe they want me to take the line out."

I don't have financial interests, but there's a book you can get on Amazon, "The Making of Leprechaun." A lot of people don't know, but it came out a couple of months ago. It has all those interesting behind-the-scenes stories and antidotes and things like that. There's a lot of information on that, but I remember that. It was an adventure every day. It was my first time directing, so I was excited. They gave me 35-millimeter film and Panavision cameras, which was a big deal to have as a first-time director, and I had a good crew.

What impact or influence do you feel that the film has had on the horror genre as a whole?

Mark Jones: I think people, kind of the kids, got it. I think it made people less afraid to go over the top. Horror was a lot of straight-ahead slasher kind of movies, and I didn't want to do that. I think the comedy, and the tone that you had a villain who was killing people and pulling eyeballs out, and yet, rides a tricycle, and a skateboard, and all this fun stuff. I think it told people, "Hey, you know what? We don't have to take horror so seriously. We can have some fun with it." I think I was one of the first ones who really did it with a monster who had a personality and talked. There was Freddy Krueger, but he was more horrific. I think the comedy kind of opened up for other people to do it.

You’ve worked on so many different projects in a variety of different genres, but what makes Leprechaun stand out from the other work you’ve done? Does it hold a special place in your heart after all this time?

Mark Jones: Absolutely. It was the first picture that I directed. It made me a lot of money. [Laughs] I was saying the other day, an eight-year-old kid found out I did Leprechaun and came up to me and said, "I'm a big fan. I've seen them all." To make a movie 30 years ago, and an eight-year-old today still likes it, and now Hulu is going to be running it, and it's always on television, and people are still renting it—they're still renting it and watching it. It gives me a lot of pleasure that it's kind of a piece of history, so I love it. I couldn't be happier with how it's turned out.

About Leprechaun

Dan O'Grady (Shay Duffin) steals 100 gold coins from a leprechaun (Warwick Davis) while on vacation in Ireland. The leprechaun follows him home, but Dan locks the murderous midget in a crate, held at bay by a four-leaf clover. Ten years later, J.D. Redding (John Sanderford) and his daughter, Tory (Jennifer Aniston), rent O'Grady's property for the summer. When their new neighbors accidentally release the leprechaun, he goes on a murderous rampage to reclaim his gold.

Leprechaun is currently available to stream on Hulu.

Source: Screen Rant Plus