Get ready for some major jump scares — and Goosebumps connections. The Disney+ series based on R.L. Stine‘s iconic book series premiered in October 2023, with a few giant Easter eggs from the novels.
“Getting an email from R.L. Stine after he watched the pilot saying he was thrilled with what we had done with his property was a true career highlight,” executive producer Conor Welch told Us Weekly before the premiere. “He was just always in the back of our mind. The bar was so high. So even though he wasn’t in the writers room with us, his presence was certainly looming.”
While Conor and fellow executive producer Pavun Shetty stayed true to the books, they wanted to “elevate the material” overall.
“We had to make fans of the book thrilled that we were doing what we’re doing when we’re doing it and not retreading stuff that had already been done,” Conor added. “I think just [R.L. Stine’s] looming presence was enough motivation to make sure that we were reaching the heights that we hoped to.”
Of course, while the books are generally focused around middle schoolers, the team wanted to make a show that could reach every age range.
“The brilliance of the Goosebumps books is that when you’re reading them at that age, you feel like you’re reading something that is a little bit too old for you. [You feel like] you shouldn’t be looking at that. That was important to us when we developed the show,” Pavun explained to Us. “We wanted to take those iconic stories that are R.L. Stine created and do a TV version that was a little bit elevated, with a little bit more intense scares and the humor was more sophisticated.”
Goosebumps stars Ana Yi Puig (Isabella), Justin Long (Mr. Bratt), Miles McKenna (James), Will Price (Lucas), Zack Morris (Isaiah) and Isa Briones (Margot) and follows “a group of five high schoolers as they embark on a shadowy and twisted journey to investigate the tragic passing three decades earlier of a teen named Harold Biddle – while also unearthing dark secrets from their parents’ past,” the official description reads.
Scroll through our gallery for a breakdown of the Goosebumps episode titles.
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