Disney+ users won’t get to see a TV adaptation of The Spiderwick Chronicles after all. The streaming platform is ditching the live-action series, even though an eight-episode season has already finished filming.
The decision not to stream The Spiderwick Chronicles is part of a content write-off Disney announced in May, according to Deadline, which first reported the cancellation.
“We are in the process of reviewing the content on our DTC services to align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation,” Christine McCarthy, then Disney’s CFO, explained at the time. “As a result, we will be removing certain content from our streaming platforms, and currently expect to take an impairment charge of approximately $1.5 to $1.8 billion.”
In addition, Disney Branded Television is beginning to focus more on Disney’s own intellectual property instead of non-Disney IP like Spiderwick, Deadline reports.
Disney announced The Spiderwick Chronicles, an adaptation of the Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black book series that also inspired a 2008 feature film, in November 2021.
Disney+
The story “follows the Grace Family — twin brothers Jared and Simon, their sister Mallory and mother Helen — as they move into their dilapidated ancestral home [and] begin to unravel a dark mystery about their great-great Uncle who once discovered the secret and sometimes dangerous faerie world,” Disney explained at the time.
An eight-episode first season went into production in Canada in September 2022 and wrapped early this year, with Christian Slater, Joy Bryant, Jack Dylan Grazer, Lyon Daniels, Noah Cottrell, and Mychala Lee in the cast.
Black and DiTerlizzi served as executive producers alongside Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, D.J. Goldberg, Julie Kane-Ritsch, and Kat Coiro, while Aron Eli Coleite served as EP and showrunner.
Paramount Television Studios — which produced The Spiderwick Chronicles in partnership with 20th Television — is currently shopping the series to prospective buyers, Deadline reports.
