1984’s “Gremlins” was a surprise hit for several reasons. For one, it was a horror comedy which managed to appeal to a wide range of moviegoers, and held its own against another trailblazing horror comedy which was released on the very same day: “Ghostbusters.” For another, it was marketed heavily on the name of producer Steven Spielberg, with the ad team for Warner Bros. leaning on the adorable Mogwai, Gizmo, as a way of enticing the public who had gone gaga for Spielberg’s “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” two years prior. Though Gizmo was indeed as cuddly as E.T., “Gremlins” was not, as it famously became one of two horror-infused Spielberg productions that year (the other being “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”) which helped usher in the PG-13 rating, allowing for films that were more intense than a PG but not quite as adult as an R.

A happier surprise about the success of “Gremlins” is that it put director Joe Dante on the map, carrying his utterly unique sensibilities out of the New World Pictures and Roger Corman indie world he’d started in and into the big leagues. Though “Gremlins” bore some Spielberg traits, the final film is very much Dante’s, which can especially be seen in its rascally, Mad Magazine-style humor with a wicked edge. Initially, Warner Bros. hoped to turn “Gremlins” into a major franchise following the first film, and there’s nothing about the plot or the film’s cast to have kept them from doing it; it would’ve been simple to have Gizmo or another Mogwai turn up in another place with a new set of characters to cause mayhem all over again. Yet the sequel quickly entered development hell once folks realized how special Dante’s touch was on the original, as seemingly no one could figure out how to blend the practical, puppet effects with humor and zany thrills. Finally, the studio went back to Dante, who used the leverage to get what was essentially a creative blank check.

Thus, “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” became one of the most subversive, off-the-wall sequels ever made, with Dante and his collaborators letting their imaginations run wild. Key and Peele even did a sketch about the brainstorming sessions for the film which made sure to underline how every wacky concept pitched in the sketch actually ended up in the movie. One of those concepts involved a fourth-wall break in the middle of the film, a detour which would be capped by a cameo from none other than the late Hulk Hogan. It’s a scene and a cameo which perhaps best encapsulates the glorious wackiness of “Gremlins 2.”

If there were any brakes on “Gremlins,” Dante and screenwriter Charles S. Haas took them all off with “Gremlins 2.” Although the film announces its anarchic approach right away by opening with a new Looney Tunes short starring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck (Jeff Bergman), it does take its time turning up the zany dial throughout the first act of the film. By the time Gizmo has gotten inadvertently wet and the gremlins are on the loose again, however, all bets are off, and Dante, creature designer Rick Baker, and everyone else rides the movie’s descent into cartoonish insanity. The film is mostly concerned with satirizing the very concept of a “Gremlins” sequel and sequels in general while still being one, poking fun at how similar events can recur while pointing out holes in the original premise’s fantasy-based rules and logic.

However, gremlins taking over a high-tech NYC high-rise was not as far as Dante was willing to go in order to show things getting increasingly out of control. Near the middle of the film, the movie appears to break as the projector is seemingly taken over by gremlins, who’ve decided to use the light from the projector to make shadow puppets instead. Just as the gremlins replace “Gremlins 2” with a vintage nudie cutie movie (“Volleyball Holiday”), the film cuts to a scene which ostensibly is taking place in the theater where you’re watching “Gremlins 2,” in which the theater’s manager (Paul Bartel) goes into the audience to enlist the help of none other than Hulk Hogan to yell at the gremlins in the projection booth and get them to restart “Gremlins 2.” Although Hogan had a dubious, short-lived career as a screen actor where he usually portrayed characters not all that different from his real persona (see his turn as Thunderlips in “Rocky III,” for example), it’s his cameo as himself in “Gremlins 2” which remains one of his best non-wrestling appearances. Truly, there was no one else who could top the cartoonish chaos of the gremlins than prime “Hulkamania”-era Hogan.

A bit of additional trivia about the fourth wall-breaking scene in “Gremlins 2” is that it almost got cut from the film. Ironically, for years it actually was cut from the film, but not for any nefarious reasons. Instead of merely porting over the scene as it was in the theatrical release, Dante and company had the clever idea to adapt the moment for early ’90s home video, having the gremlins break the viewers’ VCR and take over their TV before a broadcast of John Wayne in “Chisum” sees Wayne (revoiced by Chad Everett) win a shootout with the gremlins before forcing the movie to start again. The change allowed the intent of the moment to remain, and kept Dante’s William Castle homage alive, as the interactivity of the fourth wall break recalls Castle’s “The Tingler,” in which the tingler creature itself supposedly gets loose inside the theater where the movie is playing (a moment which was also altered for another format when the movie screened in drive-in theaters instead). When “Gremlins 2” was released on DVD and Blu-ray, the Hogan version of the scene was finally reinstated.

Yet it nearly didn’t make any cut of the film at all, according to an oral history for “Gremlins 2.” For one thing, Hogan was not Dante’s first choice to make the intimidating cameo. That honor went to Clint Eastwood, who was sadly unavailable. Then there was the matter of the entire meta nature of the scene itself. As Dante recalled, “the studio was just completely against” the whole notion of the scene, because “they don’t like the idea of reminding the audience that they’re watching a movie.” This means that the fourth-wall break in “Gremlins 2” is essentially the sequel’s version of the Santa Claus monologue that Phoebe Cates delivers in the first film, marking two rule-breaking moments which nearly got cut from these respective films. Fortunately, cooler heads (and friendly test audiences) prevailed, and the scene remained. Upon his recent passing, Hogan will be primarily remembered for his wrestling career, as well as his many unsavory actions throughout his life. Yet he did help make “Gremlins 2” extra silly, and for that, we have to thank him.