R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps and Fear Street books are now over 30 years old! That’s right, the iconic horror series that scared a generation of kids is officially a classic. And as is the case with classics such as these, reboots, remakes, and revivals are always in the works.
For those who might not be familiar, Goosebumps follows the adventures (or misadventures) of characters like Slappy the Dummy, the Scarecrow, and the Abominable Snowman, to name just a few. In each new book, kids find themselves in all sorts of scary situations, usually involving monsters or ghosts.
Fear Street, on the other hand, is Stine’s more adult horror series, except it’s still written for kids. It’s set in the fictional town of Shadyside, where a running roster of teenagers are terrorized by all sorts of evil entities. There are vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, and just about every other kind of monster you can think of.
In 1996, Goosebumps was made into a TV series that ran for two years and 74 episodes. In 2015 it was finally made into a movie that surprised many with its triumphant cast and enjoyable script, even if it’s followup sequel didn’t quite hit the mark. Now, Disney Plus is giving the original TV series a reboot, putting their own flare on the R.L. Stine classic.
Goosebumps isn’t the only Stine classic receiving a makeover. In 2021 Netflix reimagined the Fear Street saga with a three-part R-rated film trilogy that was met with stellar reviews. In fact, they did so well that it left audiences wanting more. Thankfully, Stine sat down with Yahoo to discuss whether or not we can actually expect that to happen.
Will there be more Goosebumps and Fear Street movies?
There was mild trepidation from fans of R.L. Stine’s Fear Street books when it was announced that Netflix would make a loose adaptation of his beloved story. Of course, that all went out the window upon the movies’ release, which ended up garnering certified fresh Rotten Tomatoes scores and a hankering for more installments.
When Stine was asked if there would be more Fear Street movies he said he has heard “rumors” because “the first ones did so well.”
Say no more, Mr. Stine. That’s all we needed to know. Leigh Janiak, the director of the first three films, somewhat confirmed these rumors when she alluded to a Fear Street universe the likes of which mirror the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“One of the exciting things about ‘Fear Street’ is the fact that the universe is big and allows for a lot of space,” she said in an interview with IndieWire. “One of the things that I talked about before I was hired was that we have a potential here to create a horror Marvel [Cinematic Universe], where you can have slasher killers from lots of different eras. You have the canon of our main mythology that’s built around the fact that the devil lives in Shadyside, so there’s also room for everything else.”
It unconfirmed whether we’ll receive a sequel to the trilogy that’ll tie up the loose ends or simply another storyline that’ll intersect in some way. Or something else entirely. The possibilities are apparently endless.
As for more Goosebumps movies — Stine said “there’s still talk about more Goosebumps movies,” which again, is all we needed to keep our hopes up, especially since Goosebumps 3 has been hanging in limbo since 2020. There isn’t an official release date or working title yet, but we will update you with more information as soon as it becomes available.
Until then we have the new Disney Plus reboot of Goosebumps to look forward to, and hopefully another round of Fear Street films from Netflix.