Home Sweet Home Alone includes a few Easter eggs that reveal what Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister has been up to since the original Home Alone movies. Home Alone was a massive hit during the 1990s and made a star out of 10-year-old Macaulay Culkin. The kid from Home Alone is mistakenly left behind by his family for Christmas and has to defend his home against hapless robbers Harry and Marv, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. Culkin aged out of the role after the enjoyable (if derivative) sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, but the Home Alone series continued with a slew of lackluster sequels and rehashes – none of which featured Kevin.
Home Sweet Home Alone was announced after Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox, therefore acquiring the rights to Home Alone. However, the newest addition to the franchise is not a direct remake, and instead frames the film from the perspective of the “robbers.” In fact, the kid from Home Alone isn’t the same as the kid in the 2021 movie, who is named Max Mercer. In Home Sweet Home Alone, characters Jeff and Pam are on the brink of losing their home until they find a box of malformed dolls worth upwards of $200,000. After showing the home to Max and his mother Carol, who makes them privy to the fact about the dolls, they believe that the Mercer’s stole them and are intent on breaking into the Mercer home to get them back. Of course, what they find is that Max has accidentally been left home alone after his parents hastily left him behind while on a trip to Japan. Here’s how Home Sweet Home Alone explains what happened to Kevin McCallister, despite Macaulay Culkin not being in the Home Alone reboot.
Home Sweet Home Alone’s Kevin Easter Eggs
When Home Sweet Home Alone was first announced as a Disney+ Original Movie, it was reported to be a direct remake. However, while some story beats and scenes are the same as the original Home Alone, Home Sweet Home Alone changes the original in a few significant ways, with the movie telling the story from the perspective of the robbers rather than the kid. There was some speculation prior to release that Macaulay Culkin, the kid from Home Alone, would pop up in a cameo role as the grown-up Kevin McCallister, though this was debunked by Culkin. Notwithstanding this, the film establishes itself as being set in the original Home Alone’s universe, with Kevin’s big brother Buzz McCallister (Devin D. Ratray) appearing as a police officer. While Kevin doesn’t return in Home Sweet Home Alone, the movie does still offer a few clues as to what happened to him.
Kevin McCallister has put his time defending his home from robbers to good use now that he’s grown up. In the reboot/sequel Home Sweet Home Alone, there is a sign in the front yard of protagonist Max Mercer’s house that reads “Protected by McCallister Home Security.” Another layer to the Easter egg is that the house logo on the security sign is the same design as the one from the original Home Alone movie. Buzz notices the sign while investigating the security alarm triggered by the would-be-robbers, and is subsequently asked to investigate a report of a kid being left home alone. Telling his colleague to ignore it as a crank call, he reveals that his family accidentally left his little brother home alone at Christmas, twice. In return, Kevin pranks him every year with phony calls to the police that there is a kid home alone, hence Buzz dismissing it as a hoax.
MacCaulay Culkin Was Wise Not To Return For A Cameo
Leaving Kevin McCallister home alone to defend against robbers gave him firsthand experience of home defense. It’s both logical and a fun revelation that he’s translated this particular set of skills to building a home security business. While Kevin’s professional security system does not include flying paint cans, nails in stairs or red-hot door handles, Max is able to supplement it with his own unique set of boobytraps. It’s also good to see that Kevin hasn’t lost his sense of mischief, pranking his big brother on a yearly basis.
Home Alone is a timeless holiday classic. While Home Sweet Home Alone treads a similar path, unfortunately, it falls into the same category as the other sequels/reboots, unable to quite capture the original’s quality and charm. Though the Easter eggs in the movie are a nice touch, it was probably wise for Macaulay Culkin not to return to the role of Kevin McCallister on this occasion.
Home Alone’s Kevin Should Get The Cobra Kai Treatment
It’s not gone unnoticed by audiences that Hollywood seems preoccupied with reboots and remakes. However, when it comes to renewing the only ones that seem to successfully land are decent legacy sequels, like Ghostbusters: Afterlife or Top Gun: Maverick. Reboots like Ghostbusters 2016 or MIB International, which simply take the same concept and do it again with a new cast, almost invariably fall flat. The same can be said of Home Sweet Home Alone, but that doesn’t mean Disney should walk away from Kevin McCallister. The character has a lot of potential — just not in a plot-mirroring Home Alone reboot. Instead, Disney should look at how Netflix rejuvenated ’80s action characters Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence in Cobra Kai.
The Karate Kid got the legacy sequel treatment in the form of the television series Cobra Kai, and the results have been extraordinary. So much of a runaway success has the show been that its popularity has surpassed that of the original movie series. Macaulay Culkin has made a return to the acting world, most notably with American Horror Story, after a long stint of unsuccessful projects. Therefore, Home Alone getting the Cobra Kai treatment might fare better than another remake. A television series starring an adult Kevin McCallister doing his own version of home security would make for television gold, and the possibilities for storylines are endless. It seems to go over better when legacy sequels follow child actors into adulthood than say, yet another remake. There’s no telling whether Macaulay Culkin would be on board, but based on his 2018 Home Alone Google commercial, he might not be opposed.
