Goosebumps Heads Back To TV With A New Live-Action Series At Disney+
There's no end in sight for the R.L. Stine renaissance, as Disney+ has now ordered a 10-episode "Goosebumps" streaming series. A trilogy of films based on Stine's "Fear Street" books made a big splash (or knife slash) on Netflix last summer, while Seth Grahame-Smith brought Stine's "Just Beyond" graphic novels to Disney+ with an anthology series last October. Now, after a feature film starring Jack Black and a Halloween-themed sequel, "Goosebumps" is returning to its TV roots.
We first reported on the development of a "Goosebumps" reboot back in April of 2020. Neal H. Moritz, who co-produced the two "Goosebumps" films, was already attached to the project at that stage. Now, Variety reports that Disney+ has given the "Goosebumps" reboot series the official go-ahead, with Rob Letterman — who directed the first "Goosebumps" film — and Nick Stoller set to write and executive produce. The series will reportedly follow "a group of five high schoolers who unleash supernatural forces upon their town and must all work together – thanks to and in spite of their friendships, rivalries, and pasts with each other – in order to save it, learning much about their own parents' teenage secrets in the process."
This makes it sound like the new "Goosebumps" will be going the interconnected route rather than a straight anthology with standalone episodes, like the old "Goosebumps" TV series. That show, which was originally broadcast on Fox Kids from 1995 to 1998, was #1 in the ratings for all four of its seasons. It was later shown on Fox Family and the Cartoon Network in reruns, with Netflix eventually becoming the streaming home for it.
The Stephen King of Kids' Lit
Stine has often been likened to the "Stephen King of children's literature." There are now over 200 "Goosebumps" books and 400 million copies of them in print, and the series has also been translated into over 30 different languages. The "Fear Street" books were geared toward teenagers and the "Goosebumps" books were geared more toward children, so it made sense for "Fear Street" to land on Netflix as a series of teen slasher films, while "Goosebumps" is finding its home on the more kid-friendly platform of Disney+.
Scholastic, the publisher behind all of the "Goosebumps" books, is also behind this upcoming Disney+ series. Iole Lucchese and Caitlin Friedman of Scholastic Entertainment will executive produce the show with Mortiz, Letterman, Stoller, Pavun Shetty, and Conor Welch.
The "Goosebumps" reboot will be a production of Sony Pictures Television Studios. Sony has not announced any casting details or a release date yet, but watch this space and we'll have more information on that as it becomes available.