Nickelodeon's 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?' Reboot Sets Production Start Date

The Are You Afraid of the Dark? reboot miniseries appears to be moving forwards as a new report indicates that production will soon start. Casting, narrative details, and more remain under wraps, but at least there appears to be some life in the '90s teen horror anthology despite the film -- which is seemingly meant to coincide with the miniseries -- being in limbo.

According to Production Weekly, production on the series reboot is set to begin on May 27th in Vancouver. The upcoming miniseries was first announced in February, though plans appear to have changed since that time.

"The beloved anthology series will return this October as a brand-new miniseries and follow new members of the Midnight Society as they gather around a campfire in the woods to share scary stories," the cable network announced via press release. "The miniseries will coincide with the upcoming Are You Afraid of the Dark? theatrical movie from Paramount Pictures, Paramount Players', and Nickelodeon Movies, in theaters October 2019."

While the beginning portion of that still seems to be on track, at least according to Production Weekly, the current fate of the film itself is unclear. Though it was initially planned for an October 2019 release, just like the press release said, BoxOffice reported in late February that the film had been removed from Paramount's release slate.

Beyond the short synopsis offered in the press release, details on both the upcoming television miniseries and Are You Afraid of the Dark? film are sparse. That said, writer Gary Dauberman did promise that film will honor the spirit of the original series.

"That show is so important to me. I didn't want to age it down too much because for it's time, it had some really disturbing episodes and some really dark episodes. Not every story the Midnight Society told ended with happily ever after or a person learning their lesson and it will never happen again," Dauberman previously told SlashFilm. "I really embraced that side of things and I think it's been a long time. I think fear is healthy for kids. I don't think we have to always sand down the edges of things and that's something I really wanted to do with Are You Afraid of the Dark? I think it is scary and I think kids will be scared watching it at times, and also they'll laugh at times. I think it's got a great message. I think it's got a great heart to it but it is still scary. I think that's great. I think it's going to open it up to a wider audience."

Are you excited for the new miniseries and film -- should the film actually happen? Let us know in the comments!

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