Roku snaps up Disney Plus’ dark mystery TV adaptation of The Spiderwick Chronicles
Fantasy fans rejoice!
Were you disappointed when Disney Plus canceled The Spiderwick Chronicles? Then this'll cheer you up: the series has found a new home two months after Disney Plus announced that it wouldn't be streaming the live-action adaptation. That new home is The Roku Channel, and you'll be able to stream the show from early 2024.
Here's Roku's head of originals, Brian Tannenbaum: "We cannot wait to introduce this exquisitely crafted series, imagined by a world-class creative team, to millions of streamers."
It's good news for fantasy fans, as the show was one of the victims of Disney Plus's cost-cutting that has seen several popular shows canceled – although in most cases people were able to watch at least some of them before the ax fell. This show was different, because while principal filming was completed the show was never streamed.
What are the Spiderwick Chronicles?
The show is based on the popular children's book series by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. It's a coming of age story featuring the Grace family, who are relocating from New York to the family's ancestral home in Michigan. And when they get there, they discover that their great grandfather's estate is much more mysterious than just having a bunch of junk and some mysterious jars of screws in a garage: there's a whole secret and fantastical world for them to explore.
We were very surprised by Disney's decision not to show The Spiderwick Chronicles. As we wrote two months back, filming had already wrapped on the show and on another series, Nautilus. Disney did say it was working with the production teams on both shows to find new homes, so hopefully we'll get some happy news about Nautilus too.
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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.