The surprising success of Goosebumps is giving book-to-screen movie fans high hopes for Disney’s next two novel adaptations, which have proved tricky for filmmakers in the past. The Goosebumps franchise itself has had a checkered adaptation history, with several movies and series to its name. Based on the beloved R.L. Stine book series, the 2023 series on Disney+ steers away from the anthology format of the original 1995 Goosebumps TV show, eschewing the ’90s show’s one-off approach for an overarching narrative that just-so-happens to incorporate many of the series’ well-known items, characters, and lore.
Released on Disney+ and Hulu simultaneously, Goosebumps centers on five high schoolers-turned-teen-sleuths: quarterback Isaiah (Zack Morris); Isaiah’s neighbor Margot (Isa Briones); James (Miles McKenna), Isaiah’s wealthy best friend; the oft-ignored and mistreated Isabella (Ana Yi Puig), who vents her frustrations through online trolling; and Lucas (Will Price), an extreme sports fanatic who’s chased adrenaline highs since losing his dad. Together, the teens investigate what happened to Harold Biddle, a teen who went to their school 30 years earlier, all while learning about their parents’ dark pasts. Needless to say, Goosebumps‘ more thoughtful approach to storytelling also signals good things for Disney’s upcoming book-to-screen adaptations.
Percy Jackson & Eragon’s Disney Adaptations Are More Promising After Goosebumps
With solid reviews from critics and audiences alike, Goosebumps is a surprising streaming win for Disney, which has been struggling in 2023 with its tent pole franchises and big-budget movies. Perhaps more importantly, Disney has proven that it can transplant well-worn, fan-loved novels into an effective miniseries format. While the creative teams on all the company’s projects vary, this still bodes well for two of Disney’s biggest — and most challenging — book-to-screen adaptations: Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Eragon. Not only are both source-material book series acclaimed bestsellers, but Percy Jackson and Eragon boast troubled film adaptation histories.
Infamously, Rick Riordan’s stories about the 12-year-old Greek demigod were turned into a two-movie film series starring Logan Lerman. The ill-received Percy Jackson adaptations hit theaters about a decade ago, but, before then, 20th Century Fox adapted Christopher Paolini’s novel about a farmhand-turned-dragon-rider into 2006’s dismal flop, Eragon. While both movie adaptations made a decent chunk of change at the box office, neither Percy Jackson nor Eragon were the franchise-launching films studios had banked on. To make matters worse, fans of both book series universally loathed the adaptations, making any future efforts a big challenge for Disney.
Why Goosebumps Is A Good Sign For Disney’s Future
Instead of taking the safe, tried-and-tested anthology route and adapting R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books as distinct episodes, Disney’s Goosebumps series treads new ground. Although a bold move, it paid off in spades, delivering something both familiar and fresh to long-time fans and series newcomers alike. Moreover, the interwoven nature of the Goosebumps tales proves that Disney can execute complex book adaptations — ones that feature large ensembles of characters, dense lore, and tons of subplots. After Goosebumps, Percy Jackson might save Disney this December by setting up another big-picture, seasons-sprawling story.
As fantasy epics, both Percy Jackson and Eragon require an immense attention to detail and, based on their movie track records, could easily be deemed too risky. While Disney’s Percy Jackson show is truer to the books already than the series’ previous adaptations, Disney’s Goosebumps further proves that sticking to the most resonant elements of the source material matters a lot — to fans and the story at hand. That said, Goosebumps‘ surprising success not only inspires confidence in Disney’s future book adaptations, but makes them more likely to be green lit.
