Disney's The Santa Clause Starring Tim Allen Gets A Director And EP

Disney+ has announced that Jason Winer their upcoming limited series set in the world of The Santa Clause. The series, which will bring back Tim Allen and Elizabeth Mitchell as Santa and Mrs. Claus, will be executive produced through Winer's Small Dog Production Co. The series, still tentatively titled just The Santa Clause, will reunite Allen with his Last Man Standing showrunner Jack Burditt, and wrap up the story of Scott Calvin (Allen), who has served as Santa Claus for more than 25 years now and needs to find a replacement. Deadline first reported the deal.

The film franchise, which featured Allen as a selfish man who learned to be more loving when he accidentally killed Santa Claus and had to take over the role, has earned almost $500 million at the box office since it began in 1994. The last installment in the series, which featured Martin Short as a villainous take on Jack Frost, was released in 2006. Allen will executive producer, along with Scott Burditt, the creator of Last Man Standing, who will serve as a showrunner.

The Disney Branded Television series is a production of 20th Television.

Allen won a People's Choice Award for his portrayal of Scott Calvin, Santa Claus's proxy, complete with expanding waistline, rosy cheeks and snow-white whiskers in the 1994 film The Santa Clause. He went on to play the role in two sequels, 2002's The Santa Clause 2 (which saw Santa forced to find a Mrs. Claus) and 2006's The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause.

In the Disney+ series, Scott Calvin is on the brink of his 65th birthday, and realizing that he can't be Santa forever. He's starting to lose a step in his Santa duties, and more importantly, he's got a family who could benefit from a life in the normal world, especially his two kids who have grown up at the Pole.  With a lot of elves, children, and family to please, Scott sets out to find a suitable replacement Santa while preparing his family for a new adventure in a life south of the pole.

Allen, a former stand-up comic who became a household name as the star of the top-rated ABC series Home Improvement," earned numerous awards for his role of Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor, including a Golden Globe in 1994 and The People's Choice Award for eight consecutive years from 1992-1999. Allen also starred for nine seasons on the hit series Last Man Standing, which had an unexpected Home Improvement crossover in the series' final season.

In 1995, Allen lent his voice to Buzz Lightyear in Pixar's first commercially-released feature film, Toy Story.  He reprised the iconic role in three sequels, 1999's Toy Story 2, 2010's Toy Story 3, and 2019's Toy Story 4. He also appeared as the character in a number of Toy Story short films, including Hawaiian Vacation, Small Fry, and Partysaurus Rex.

He reunited with the creative team from The Santa Clause to make Disney's Jungle 2 Jungle, and also starred in the 2006 remake of a live-action Disney classic, The Shaggy Dog.

Allen also lent his own voice as narrator to the 2012 Disneynature documentary, Chimpanzee, and co-starred in the 2007 Touchstone comedy Wild Hogs (from the director of Clifford the Big Red Dog) and the 1999  cult classic Galaxy Quest (from the director of Bill and Ted Face the Music).