Goosebumps Season 2 Is Happening, With A Whole New Cast And Setting
Viewer beware, you're in for more scares! A whole new eight-episode season of scares, to be precise. Disney+ today announced that its recent TV adaptation of "Goosebumps" is moving ahead with season 2, which will establish an anthology format by introducing a whole new cast of characters in a brand new setting.
The first season had an ongoing narrative that wove in classics from R.L. Stine's spooky children's book franchise, from "Say Cheese and Die" to "The Cuckoo Clock of Doom." Based on the synopsis, it sounds like "Goosebumps" season 2 will take a similar approach:
In the upcoming season, teenage siblings discover a threat within their home, setting off a chain of events that unravel a profound mystery. As they delve into the unknown, the duo find themselves entangled in the story of five teenagers who mysteriously vanished in 1994.
Not a lot of detail there to hint at any particular "Goosebumps" story, though the mention of teenagers mysteriously disappearing does bring to mind one of Stine's best and creepiest books: "The Haunted School." Season 1 hit a lot of the classics with clear mascots (Slappy the Dummy from the "Night of the Living Dummy" series) or evil objects (see: "The Haunted Mask" and that darn Cuckoo Clock of Doom). But the most haunting "Goosebumps" tales are often those where the threat is more abstract or the protagonists are forced to question their reality. (Shout out to "A Night in Terror Tower" and "The Ghost Next Door").
A change of plans for Goosebumps season 2?
The other obvious possibility is that the two seasons' stories actually are connected. "Goosebumps" season 1 focused on five main teenage characters, and featured flashbacks to their parents' lives in 1993. Some season 1 character returns would definitely not come as a surprise if they happen in season 2 — especially given what executive producer Conor Welch told /Film's Ethan Anderton in an interview just a couple of months ago:
"Our hope and intention is to continue the story with these characters that we've established. They really just had such an excellent chemistry. It was fun to watch their dynamics grow and shift and deepen. I think there are many more episodes to be told with this group and many, many more books that we haven't even touched, that we are lucky enough to be able to dig into to draw inspiration for many seasons to come. But yeah, the short answer is, for sure, we'll serialize with this same group moving forward, if we're lucky enough to have that opportunity."
The original "Goosebumps" books were aimed at a preteen audience and typically centered protagonists from that age group. But it made sense to switch things up for a new adaptation, since the books had already been made into a kid-friendly TV show in the 1990s and were adapted into two kid-friendly movies very recently. The first season of the Disney+ series had a slightly more mature tone and featured characters who were in high school and thinking about their plans for college, and the season ended on a cliffhanger for one of those characters. Hopefully we haven't seen the last of them yet.