Goosebumps, the iconic children's horror book series by R.L. Stine, is set for a new tv adaptation. Nearly two years after the first reports of a new television series, Disney Plus has picked up Goosebumps.
News of a fresh Goosebumps TV series was first reported back in April 2020, but no network or release window had been set at the time. Now, the Goosebumps TV series has officially found a home at Disney Plus with a 10-episode order.
Variety reports an official description, starting that the Goosebumps series "follows 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." All of this suggests that the series will be closely related to the recent Goosebumps movies starring Jack Black, which makes sense considering their director, Rob Letterman, will serve as an executive producer for the show. The films were a critical and commercial success, grossing over $250 million at the box office, so it would be wise to further develop this era in the franchise.
The Goosebumps book series has been a massive hit for decades, spawning over a hundred entries. And decades before the recent Sony Pictures movies, it was successfully adapted into an anthology television series in the '90s. Some of Stine's other work includes The Haunting Hour, which also became a hit TV show, and perhaps most famously his high-school slasher series Fear Street, which was adapted into Netflix's highly acclaimed trilogy of movies.
Stine's work has attracted fans of all ages. He's no master of scares like Stephen King or Clive Barker, but he's never tried to be. His books are simple, fun, campy horror stories for the whole family to enjoy. Who could ever forget such iconic creatures as Slappy the Dummy or the Haunted Mask? And with TV lending itself well to monster-of-the-week formulas, perhaps this new series will give fans an even better Goosebumps reunion than the Rob Letterman films.
A lot is still under wraps, so there's still a lot of questions. What sort of monsters will be featured in the new series, old and new? What dilemmas will the kids have to face next? Will Black reprise his role as Stine in the series? The possibilities are endless. But we'll find out soon enough, when Goosebumps eventually creeps onto Disney Plus.
Goosebumps is currently in pre-production.
Source: Variety