Just when you thought Disney’s brutal cost-cutting couldn’t throw up any more surprises, the Mouse House has decided that it will no longer be airing the episodic reboot of The Spiderwick Chronicles, even though the episodic redo of the wildly popular literary series wrapped shooting this past January.
Initially announced in November of 2021, the show began shooting the following September with Christian Slater and Shazam!‘s Jack Dylan Grazer among the cast, while She-Hulk: Attorney at Law‘s Kat Coiro is also on board as a director and executive producer.
Filming went off without a hitch, and presumably The Spiderwick Chronicles is almost locked and ready to go seeing as principal photography ended seven months ago, but Disney has now opted to scrap the project altogether as part of a drive to not just save money, but avoid premiering original film and television projects that aren’t born from its own IP.
The 2008 feature-length version deserved the sequels it never got despite coming close to clearing $200 million at the global box office, and now Disney has robbed subscribers of the chance to see how the latest iteration stacked up against its predecessor.
Paramount – who own the rights to the property and were involved as one of the major production companies second time around, too – are going to shop The Spiderwick Chronicles to other parties and see if anybody is willing to pick it up, which creates a nightmare scenario for all involved should nobody bite. If it ain’t owned by Mickey, then you won’t be seeing it on his platform.