Having become an instant Marvel Cinematic Universe favorite thanks to his scene-stealing performance as Time Variance Authority analyst and all-round jet ski enthusiast Mobius M. Mobius in Loki, Owen Wilson is remaining in the Disney business, having boarded the studio’s Haunted Mansion reboot.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that the actor is joining Academy Award nominee LaKeith Stanfield and Emmy winner Tiffany Haddish in the project, which is being helmed by Dear White People creator and Lando showrunner Justin Simien from a script by Kate Dippold.
Shooting is scheduled to start next month in New Orleans, so we could realistically be seeing Haunted Mansion around October 2022 as family-friendly counter-programming to the slate of R-rated horrors that tend to flock to the spookiest month of the year. Wilson’s role hasn’t been disclosed as of yet, but Stanfield will play a widowed tour guide who gave up on his belief in the supernatural, while Haddish is a psychic who communes with the dead.
Wilson is no stranger to cavernous homes being plagued by things that go bump in the night, having co-starred in the dismal The Haunting back in 1999, so let’s hope things turn out much better for his return to similar territory. The new spin on Haunted Mansion has been in development for a decade already, with Guillermo del Toro and Ryan Gosling previously circling the project, but Simien has assembled an impressive central trio, and more casting announcements will be incoming with the start of production imminent.