How Disney+ Gave ‘Goosebumps’ A More Terrifying Reboot With R.L. Stine’s Blessing

A fresh TV installment of R.L. Stine’s classic spooky book series Goosebumps, that’s yielded multiple television series and films, launched on Disney+ over the weekend. But viewer beware, this isn’t your elder millennial mom or dad’s Goosebumps, it’s scarier.

The first five episodes of the ghostly reboot, also available on Hulu, debuted on Friday and the additional five will premiere individually in the following weeks.

Although the strategy of taking things up a notch may be a bit surprising to those in their late 30s to early 40s who grew up reading the books and would have enjoyed watching the new take with their young children, 2023’s Goosebumps not only had the master’s blessing, but his encouragement.

“He watched the cuts and read some of the scripts,” show producer Conor Welch said of R.L. Stine’s involvement with the new show. “And really, the most exciting part of the whole process, for me, was after he saw the rough cut of the pilot, and wrote a very congratulatory email sort of saying that he was thrilled with the direction that we took it.

“So as a guy whose name in bright green was across every book in my bedroom library growing up, it was really amazing to get his blessing in that way.”

For fellow Goosebumps producer Pavun Shetty, handling a sacred IP like Stine’s famed book series is a tough undertaking and making the show without his approval wouldn’t be the right move.

“We wouldn’t have done the show had R.L. Stine not given us his blessing because that’s the most important thing,” Shetty stated. “He created one of the most popular book series of all time. And this IP, is just beloved. And so there’s a lot of people who read the books growing up. And it really holds a special place with them, including Conor and I, [who] grew up reading the books too.

“So personally, we were fans of it. So we wanted to do the original book series justice. And luckily, Rob Letterman, who directed the first Goosebumps movie, created the show. And he directed the first episode (‘Say Cheese and Die’). So he went back with R.L. Stine a long ways. And so we had a little bit of trust already built into the development process.”

Stine helped guide the producers early on in the development process, according to Welch.

“He was always sort of the North Star and was nice enough to kind of meet with us at the beginning of the process,” Conor said. “And sort of his [opinion was] that it should always feel a little bit scarier and a little bit funnier than the reader or the audience expects and that it never talked down to its readers.

“So that was absolutely front of mind from the jump is we wanted something that was a little bit more sophisticated and elevated that could reach adults who didn’t have kids but also could be enjoyed with parents with their children, but that never talked down to the audience and always kind of felt like a party that maybe the younger ones shouldn’t be invited to but were thrilled to attend.”

There were certain elements of the original Goosebumps book series that the producers wanted to stay true to with the reboot.

“Every chapter ended with a punchline. And anytime things got a little bit too intense, they were tempered by a joke,” Shetty said. “And so we really took that to heart. And from the very beginning, the show was designed to be a comedy thriller. And a lot of times, comedy and horror have similar cadences.

“And so we wanted to kind of subvert expectations with that. So when you’re expecting a punchline, you get a scare. And when you’re expecting a jump scare, you get a joke. And so that was in the DNA of the books, that seamless nature between comedy and horror. And so we really incorporated that into every aspect of the show.”

Both Connor and Pavun previously learned a lot working behind the scenes with top industry talent. Welch was an assistant on 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Shetty was a producer on Amazon
AMZN
Prime’s The Boys before getting tapped to work on its 2023 spinoff series Gen V.

“Picked up a lot,” responded Conor when asked about Scott Pilgrim. “And that one, my role at the time involved watching literally every minute of dailies. So I’ve seen more Edgar Wright footage than probably most humans on planet earth. But yeah, that was a truly seminal experience in terms of watching how much can be shot and then that curate down to the hour and a half to two-hour long movie that you’ve come to see and love.”

Pavun had great insight into how actor Anthony Starr portrays the perfect unhinged maniac as Homelander in The Boys.

“He’s got eyes built for the role,” Shetty promptly responded with. “He can do a whole scene with just his eyes which is why so many of those shots are just these tight shots zooming in on him because he has perfect twitches, perfect reaction with his eyebrows. And those blue eyes are just icy cold and psychotic, so it works out.”

To no surprise, it sounds like Starr is methodical in his approach to the role.

“He’s very into the character, and he’s very thoughtful. And he prepares and makes sure he understands exactly what is going on with the character,” Pavun said. “And then he just sort of takes over from there. So from the very first audition on, we can see it.”