The Spiderwick Chronicles has taken a long road to the small screen—but it’s finally almost here. And a good thing, too, because Mulgarath (Christian Slater) is hungry.
The series is based on the middle-grade books by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. The story follows teenage twins who, along with their mother and sister, move to their great-grandfather’s eerie (and, in the trailer, massive) house for a fresh start—only to find that there is a whole other world all around them. Faeries! Ogres! Boggarts! And terrifying messages appearing on mirrors, which is always a classic.
Noah Cottrell and Lyon Daniels play the twins, Simon and Jared Grace; Mychala Lee is their sister, Mallory; and Joy Bryant is mom Helen Grace. Jack Dylan Grazer voices Thimbletack, and then of course there’s Christian Slater as a villainous ogre (who sometimes just looks like Christian Slater). He seems to have a rather Magneto-like beef with humanity, though I don’t think Magneto ever wanted to eat anyone.
The Spiderwick Chronicles was initially produced for Disney, but Disney decided to pass on the series once the entire first season was complete. Reportedly, it “was deemed to be darker than the typical Disney+ fare.” But this trailer really plays up the whimsy, and hardly looks dark at all—creepy and magical in a familiar way, sure. But not very dark.
Aron Eli Coleite (a producer on Locke & Key and Star Trek: Discovery) and Kat Coiro (She-Hulk’s director) are Spiderwick’s showrunners; DiTerlizzi and Black are among the executive producers.
All eight episodes of The Spiderwick Chronicles will appear on The Roku Channel on April 19th.
