Highlights
- Disney's cost-cutting decisions have led to the cancellation of The Spiderwick Chronicles series on Disney Plus, despite its successful children's book source material and previous feature film adaptation.
- The series had already completed its 8-episode season, but Disney's focus on its own IP and tighter content control on Disney+ and Hulu resulted in the project being taken off the board.
- While The Spiderwick Chronicles series will not be released on Disney Plus, other similar projects like the Percy Jackson series are still in development, potentially influencing the decision to cancel the former.
The Spiderwick Chronicles Disney Plus series was canceled amid a wave of cost-cutting decisions across the House of Mouse's vast media empire.
The Spiderwick Chronicles was a proposed live-action Disney Plus series set to adapt the children’s book series of the same name, which chronicled the adventures of the Grace family, with the three children at the center of the story. After moving into the Spiderwick Estate, the children discover magical fairies and proceed on a grand adventure that escalates to a battle with malevolent creatures to save the world. The book series was successful and was subsequently adapted into a feature film in 2008, which was also received well critically. Disney announced plans for a more elaborate long-form adaptation for Disney Plus, which started filming in 2022 alongside several great fantasy series that kicked off that year.
In the latest act of a long and intentional attempt at cost-cutting and budget management, Disney has decided to shelve plans for the project's release. As reported by Deadline, the company’s new initiative to focus on its IP and tighter content control on Disney Plus and Hulu has led to the series being taken off the board for Disney Plus. The Spiderwick Chronicles is not the first victim of this sort of cost-cutting decision, as an Indiana Jones Disney Plus series was canceled mid-development despite being a big-name IP owned by Lucasfilm. The company has also committed to producing less content overall based on their biggest IPs, leaving the project unfortunately outclassed by others in the bid for the Disney Plus release.
Despite the cancellation of the Disney Plus series' release, the 8-episode season has already been completed by Paramount Television Studios and 20th Television. Unlike the canceled Batgirl movie, which DCU boss Peter Safran alleged was shelved despite being in post-production because it would hurt the brand, The Spiderwick Chronicles is still looking to be released, with Paramount TV Studios looking for potential buyers for the completed project. The series starred Jack Dylan Grazer, Lyon Daniels, Noah Cottrell, Joy Bryant, Mychala Lee, and Christian Slater in the antagonist’s role.
Disney has been on the warpath with its cost-cutting for years, with Bob Iger forgoing his salary alongside pay cuts for other execs in 2020 as part of the effort, which said executives were unhappy about. The latest shift in strategy to focus on making less content and favoring internally owned IP stems from decisions made and announced in May that are now beginning to show their effects. While less content and more quality control on the projects based on the larger IPs like Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe are a good step, the rejection of outside IP is still up for scrutiny.
While The Spiderwick Chronicles might be a no-go on Disney Plus, the platform won't lack for similar projects, as the upcoming Percy Jackson and the Olympians Disney Plus series is still in the cards at the streamer. Arguably a more popular franchise, and one that Disney has more control over, it seems possible that the impending success of Percy Jackson might have given the company the peace of mind to do away with The Spiderwick Chronicle.
Source: Deadline