Give Yourself ‘Goosebumps’
Behind-the-scenes of the new Disney+/Hulu series with co-creator Rob Letterman
image courtesy of Disney/David Astorga
A haunted mansion. The star quarterback. Geeky best friend. Slimy supernatural creatures. Viewers of the new Goosebumps are probably as familiar with these teen horror tropes as well as they know the spooky novels this 10-episode series is based on. Luckily there’s a twist: Originally written by “the Stephen King of children’s literature” R.L. Stine, this latest adaptation of Goosebumps, released last month on Disney+ and Hulu, thankfully loses the low-budget camp of the previous 1995 series (who can forget those disembodied hands playing the piano?) and sidesteps the nostalgic irony of shows like Stranger Things in favor of creating a dark mystery about generational trauma that balances horror, humor—and yes, plenty of gross-out sight gags.
At the helm of Goosebumps is executive producer Rob Letterman, who, along with co-creator Nicholas Stoller, helped adapt the book series for TV. Letterman directed the 2015 Goosebumps movie that featured Jack Black as a fictional R.L. Stine; for a second time, Letterman is attempting the high-wire act of honoring a beloved franchise with a brand new story that weaves together monsters from dozens of books, all while finding a tone that resonates with Goosebumps readers whether they’re age 9 or 39.
We caught up with Letterman in advance of the Goosebumps season finale on November 17 to talk about his approach in developing the new series, modernizing ‘90s scares for 2023 audiences, and confronting the ultimate horror: Being a teenager.
You previously directed Shark Tale, Gulliver’s Travels, and the 2015 Goosebumps movie, all of which feature Jack Black. Is this how you got linked in to the Goosebumps show?
Jack’s the best. We’ve worked on three projects together and I love the guy; I’m always looking to do stuff with him. But the connection from the 2015 Goosebumps to the TV series was really Neil Moritz, who was the producer of both recent Goosebumps movies. Neil called me during the pandemic and said he wanted to do Goosebumps as a TV series and would I be interested? I loved working on Goosebumps and I jumped at the chance to try something awesome. I called my friend Nick Stoller, who’s worked with me on a bunch of stuff, and we just started coming up with concepts.
Did the 2015 Goosebumps offer a launching point in terms of approach? For example, having a serial storyline that combined elements from different books versus creating an anthology series with standalone episodes.
From the get-go, we wanted this Goosebumps to be something new. We wanted it to be different from the movies and we also didn’t want to do what the original [1995] TV series did. The books are anthologies but we wanted a serialized show that followed specific characters and could allow for a deeper dive and an opportunity to build some mythology. A lot of people who grew up on Goosebumps are now in their 30s and 40s. Our goal was for this to be something the original audience could watch, while also reaching a broader audience of teens and young people and even adults without kids. That was the initial impulse. Then we got into the big idea for the series, which brought together different stories from the books and mapped them to a set of characters that lived in the same town and who could cross paths with each other. Halfway through the season, we had them come together to uncover what’s behind everything that’s happening.
image courtesy of Disney/David Astorga
Have you read most of the Goosebumps books? Were there certain storylines and monsters that you knew you wanted to weave into the show?
I read my kids the Goosebumps books when they were kids, which scared the crap out of them. But, you know, in a good way. Then my kids grew up watching me make Goosebumps [in 2015], which is unique. For this Goosebumps, we focused on the first 60 books, the original ones from the 1990s. Certain stories—like Say Cheese and Die!—we were always circling from the beginning. Part of the show’s conceit is that we’re using different subgenres of horror, like thriller and psychological and gross-out, so we tried to find stories and elements that could complement each other.
So an iconic character like Slappy the Dummy, was he a definite must-have?
He’s got to be in there! Slappy has become the mascot for the book series; the show just wouldn’t have been right without him. I don’t want to give anything away, but there’s a lot more of Slappy to uncover. We tried to create a structure that allows us to bring in more books and map them to characters for the future (with the hope of having multiple seasons).
This Goosebumps is more intense than the previous TV series or even the recent movies. How did you strike a balance between not-that-scary versus way-too-scary, especially considering the show’s wide audience?
What’s great about the books is that they’re written for a middle school audience, but R.L. Stine never pandered. These are Stephen King-level books that are simply accessible to younger readers, which I always thought was amazing. Stine always balanced horror and comedy, while keeping things grounded and relatable. In this show, we’re trying to embrace that approach. In terms of tone, that’s just what Nick and I do naturally. We happen to be lucky that Disney and Sony were on board with it.
image courtesy of Disney/David Astorga
Speaking of R.L. Stine, did he offer any thoughts on adapting his novels? Maybe even a warning—“reader beware”? Or, “executive producer beware”?
We got his blessing early on. [R.L. Stine] had a cameo in the Goosebumps movie I worked on so I got to know him a little bit on set and, through that process, there was trust there. He talked about how, when you break it all down, a lot of Goosebumps is “be careful what you wish for.” A lot of times, he encouraged letting whatever is happening to the main character be from the point of view of that younger character. We picked up on that and when we showed him the [edits] when we were done shooting, he was happy with it.
Stine wrote the original Goosebumps books from 1992 to 1997. Did you feel the need to modernize some narratives specifically for 2023? Or are the fears of adolescence universal at any age?
The books really do hold up. Today, we have all the modern things in the show that teenagers and adults have to deal with, like social media and iPhones and all that. But the books got to the heart of universal fears and generational trauma. I was very uncool growing up so I don’t think I would’ve even made the top five characters in this story, but there are a lot of my kids’ experiences kind of woven in. They probably don’t know that. I have two teenagers; my son is 17 and my daughter is about to turn 15. Nick has a 16-year-old and younger kids. We drew from what we’re experiencing through our own teens and we’re trying to reflect that in our own way. On the show, the supernatural things that are going on are metaphors. In real life, it’s hard being a teen. Especially now, they’re being exposed to a lot and going through a lot.
image courtesy of Disney/David Astorga
In the books, adults usually played some kind of role in getting the teenage characters involved in their ordeal, whether it was moving into a haunted house or exploring a tomb or signing them up for summer camp. I always appreciated that the kids in the story never turned to their parents to bail them out when things got bad, but took it upon themselves to deal with whatever was going on.
Teenagers don’t want to hang out with their parents in general. Whether demonic possessions are happening or not, they’d just rather deal with it on their own, you know what I mean?
No turning to Justin Long for help.
We got so lucky with casting Justin. Barbarian was awesome and he’s got such an incredible body of work. We love grabbing comedic actors like Justin—and Rachel Harris, who is also amazing—and letting them play dramatic. It’s fun and it pays off well. Our five actors playing the teens, we looked everywhere and they’re just excellent. Zack [Morris], who plays Isaiah, we cast him out of London. I was on a Zoom audition with him at probably 2 a.m. his time and he went to bed, not knowing we were discussing it [with Disney]. I called him the very next morning and told him he got the part. He basically woke up to airplane tickets; he had to grab luggage and just move his entire life over here. Same with Ana [Yi Puig] in New York, and Will, Isa, and Miles.
What would you say to someone who might be on the fence about watching Goosebumps because they consider it just a show “for kids”?
I think they’ll be surprised. This Goosebumps is easily accessible but it also delivers on different levels. This show subverts a lot of expectations.
Goosebumps is streaming now on Disney+ and Hulu. Interview lightly edited for clarity.