Readers beware, you’re in for a scare: Goosebumps has been cancelled at Disney+ after two seasons. According to Variety, the horror anthology — a TV-14 version of author R.L. Stine’s beloved books — will not be returning for a third season. But unlike recent series cancellations of Star Wars: The Acolyte, Willow, American Born Chinese, and The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, Goosebumps could potentially return on another network.
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Sony Pictures Television, which produced the series with Scholastic Entertainment and Disney Branded Television, is reportedly shopping Goosebumps to other outlets and is exploring “different creative directions for the IP,” per Variety.
Unlike Disney, Sony has taken a content “arms dealer” approach to streaming rather than operate its own dedicated streaming service like Disney+ or Hulu. Sony Pictures Television productions at rival streamers include The Last of Us (HBO), Twisted Metal (Peacock), Gen V (Prime Video), Pluribus (Apple TV+), The Killing Kind (Paramount+), Spider-Noir (MGM+), and an upcoming Ghostbusters animated series (Netflix), all streamers that could pick up a Goosebumps season 3.
Sony Pictures has an existing four-year film licensing deal through 2026 with Netflix, which has been home to such Sony TV-produced series as Cobra Kai and The Night Agent. The streaming giant also has episodes from the original Goosebumps series on its platform.
Inspired by Stine’s worldwide bestselling book series, Goosebumps season 1 starred Ana Yi Puig, Miles McKenna, Rachael Harris, Will Price, Zack Morris, and Justin Long. The TV series returned with its second season this past January as Goosebumps: The Vanishing, with a new cast that included Ana Ortiz, Jayden Bartels, Sam McCarthy, Elijah M. Cooper, Francesca Noel, Galilea La Salvia, Stony Blyden, and David Schwimmer.
“It took us a while to grow into the idea,” executive producer Rob Letterman previously told ComicBook about the anthology approach for the Goosebumps reboot. “And the way we thought about it is Goosebumps is an anthology series by nature. So each book is its own thing, and they don’t end tied up in a perfect little bow. They actually all end with a door opening with a twist or whatever.”
“So it just felt natural to the canon of Goosebumps. It allowed us to explore a whole new set of books, where we could start fresh, explore different genres, and be scared again,” he continued, adding that a potential third season would have followed yet another new group of teenagers. “We joke about this but there’s some truth to it: How often and how many years can a character experience horror without it just becoming totally jaded by the next monster? Like if an abominable snowman showed up on season 3 with the same set of characters, not the same reaction. So I think, for all those reasons, [anthology] just felt like a natural thing to do.”
Nicholas Stoller and Rob Letterman developed the series, which reached 75 million hours viewed combined in the US and another 43 million hours viewed in 16 territories over its first two seasons. All 18 episodes of Goosebumps are streaming now on Disney+.
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