'Back to the Future 4'? Trilogy's cast asked about sequel at reunion in Boston

From left to right: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, and Thomas Wilson (Courtesy Photo)

Reuniting under the roof of the Boston Convention Center, four members of the "Back to the Future" cast mulled whether a fourth movie should be added to the beloved time travel trilogy.

Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Thomas Wilson took to the stage in back of the annual comic convention, formally known as Fan Expo Boston, to reminisce about the 1980s films that helped launch them into superstardom.

When the cast was asked why rumors of a "Back to the Future 4" keep circulating, Wilson, who played the trilogy's villain Biff, jumped in with a quip.

"Basically, I think America is saying, 'Come on they've wrecked every other franchise with bad sequels, why not this one?'" he said to laughter. "'C'mon, we would watch it until it sucks.'"

For his part, Fox, who played teenager Marty McFly, said trilogy co-creator Bob Gale is a "really great gatekeeper of the franchise." Fox may have been referring to Gale's reported comments over the years, shutting down talks of another sequel.

Director Robert Zemeckis has made similar comments in the media.

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Marty McFly hated his own costume

Fans remain passionate about the movies, with hundreds filling the room for the four actors and some of them carefully replicating McFly's outfit of jeans, red vest, jean jacket and white shoes with a red Nike swoosh.

"I'm impressed with all these people in these vests," said Thompson, who played Marty McFly's mother. "It's 100 degrees and everyone's wearing these vests."

That prompted Fox to say how much he hated his wardrobe, because he was "so hot" in the outfit, with "silly Velcro."

"It looked great but it was terrible to wear," Fox added.

Fox, at the time the star of the television show "Family Ties," joined the first movie weeks into filming, replacing Eric Stoltz in the "Marty McFly" role.

Fox said the filming happened fast, as he moved from the set of "Family Ties" one day to the "Back to the Future" set later that day, standing in a parking lot with "flames between my legs."

"My life was just a blur," according to Fox.

"When the movie came out, it shocked me 'cause I had no idea what it was going to be, because I had no chance to live with it," Fox said.

"It just happened overnight," Fox added.

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At Boston Comic Con, formally known as Fan Expo Boston, you can pose with a model DeLorean, the time traveling car in the "Back to the Future" trilogy, for charity. (Gintautas Dumcius/MassLive)

What was the message of the movies?

Aside from "Don't hit on your future son," the cast members each had a different take on the message of the movies.

"This movie was so powerful to show to your children because it's the idea that if  you do the right thing, if you have the courage, if you stand up for yourself at the right moment of your life, you can change not only your future but your children's future," Thompson said to cheers from the audience.

Lloyd said he has fans who come up to him and say they became an engineer or an architect because they were inspired by the movie and his character "Doc Brown."

Wilson, who played a bully, joked that he hears from "Mafia thugs" who enjoyed his performance.

But turning serious, Wilson said he was bullied as a kid. He was smaller growing up, and he had asthma, meaning he missed many school days. It wasn't until halfway through high school that he grew bigger.

"I wanted to point that out, that it's wrong to bully people and they should lose and that there is nothing redeeming about it," Wilson said.

He recalled that his mother saw the movie and expected him to be playing a "handsome prince." "And I end up in this movie where I'm a horrible person," Wilson said, adding that his own mother cheered when he got punched.

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The bond between Marty and Doc Brown

Fox's agent told him he'd be playing a "skateboarding, guitar-playing teenager who loves girls." The character teams up with a mad genius that people don't understand, Fox added.

"His best friend is a 50-year-old scientist," Fox said.

The movies didn't get into how the two characters met. "I thought it was the other way around, the kid's hanging out with me," Lloyd said. "Marty seemed interested in what I was doing."

Lloyd added "Doc Brown," who invented the time-traveling car central to the trilogy, needed somebody to run errands, and the two characters were "dependent" on each other. "We were a team, you know?"

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Lea Thompson played Marty McFly's mother in the "Back to the Future" movies. (Gintautas Dumcius/MassLive)

Doc Brown was dreading the callback for 'Back to the Future II'

When Thompson asked Lloyd whether he was scared to do "Back to the Future II," he said he was "dreading" the callback because it involved re-shooting part of the end of the first movie.

"How do I get back there again" from an acting standpoint," Lloyd remembered asking himself.

Fox recalled the rapid changes that played out in his life during the movies, including his father passing away, his son being born, and a move into a new house. He was also filming the last season of "Family Ties," which ended in 1989.

At the time, the idea of doing a trilogy was "revolutionary," Fox said, unlike now and Marvel, the company behind the "Avengers" movie universe, laying out "eight movies" over a decade.

"The first one, nobody bugged us" because it was a time travel movie, Fox said. But when they returned for the two sequels, there were higher expectations.

Wilson said he was freaked out in filming the sequels, since he had to juggle multiple characters across multiple timelines. He went through the scripts with highlighters and color-coded all the different versions of Biff Tannen he played.

"You killed it. You nailed every one of them," Fox told him.

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Michael J. Fox's 'death' was greatly exaggerated

Asked about the internet theories about the trilogy, on whether Marty McFly dies in a tunnel or that his father recognizes him as his future son, Fox said he hadn't heard them.

"I heard I died last weekend," Fox quipped, a reference to a recent hoax about his passing that spread across the Internet. "I was at the beach."

"These are on the dark web," Thompson said of the theories. "Not on my Instagram."

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Tom Wilson, who played "Biff" in the "Back to the Future" movies, smiles at the crowd as he gets ready to walk off the stage. (Gintautas Dumcius/MassLive)

Where are they now?

The cast members said they're keeping busy.

Thompson said she is concentrating on directing and filmed "The Year of Spectacular Men" with her two daughters, Madelyn Deutch and Zoey Deutch.

Wilson noted that he's been cast in the fourth season of the television show "DC's Legends of Tomorrow." He proudly added that his son Tommy was recently drafted as a pitcher by the New York Mets.

Lloyd said he is playing the American poet Ezra Pound in the off-Broadway show "Pound."

Fox received a standing ovation from the comic convention crowd after he said that his foundation for Parkinson's research has raised more than $800 million.

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The trilogy's staying power

The cast members marveled at the endurance of the trilogy as fans of all ages continue to embrace the movies.

"It just keeps getting more legs," Thompson said.

"It gave me a career," Lloyd said, before acknowledging that he almost didn't take the role. He initially declined the offer to play "Doc Brown."

"I came to my senses and it worked out," he said, without offering additional details.

When they were filming, Wilson said, it didn't seem to be a "classic" trilogy for all time.

But he recalled an industry screening in Hollywood for the first movie before it was widely released.

"The applause the movie got just said, 'Wait a minute. This is something different,'" he said. "People from the very beginning, they just loved the movie."

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