The Spiderwick Chronicles cast reveals what they are most excited for fans to see in the new Roku Original series, as well as what it was like playing in that world of magic.
Based on the best-selling novels, Roku Original series The Spiderwick Chronicles premieres on April 19 and we sat down with the cast to discuss the new series. They reveal if they read the books or not, what it was like playing in that magical world, and what they are most excited for fans to see.
Did The Spiderwick Chronicles Cast Read The Books?
Lyon Daniels: I grew up on the books and the movie. I’m a big, big fantasy geek. I love Harry Potter, Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings, you name it. So it was a perfect role. I also read the books, right after [gettiing cast] just trying to emulate things and bring that into my own performance.
Mychala Lee: Yeah, definitely. After I booked it I read the books. I was always a huge fan of the movie, but it was really good to dive more into the whole story and the characters with the books.
Noah Cottrell: Oh, yeah, definitely read all of them. It is a good read. There’s a lot from the books that can possibly be in the show in the future.
Alyvia Alyn Lind: I read them. I had them all already, because Spiderwick was big in my house growing up, so I had them all. I remember reading the first one when I was younger and then I read all of them when I booked the role, which was so great to go back into the whole world of it and rediscover it. It was a movie that I loved when I was younger, too. It was something that me and my sister shared when we were younger, we both loved Spiderwick. It was so much fun to get to read them. Also my character is not in the books, or the movie, so getting to figure out exactly where I can make my character fit in without feeling forced, was a challenge, but definitely very fun. I’m very honored to have gotten the chance to do it.
Jack Dylan Grazer: Read the books. Loved every minute of it. No, I didn’t. I read the first one exclusively. The original, just like Krispy Kreme donuts, like vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream. The point I’m trying to make is I did read the first book, I watched the movie. I took a lot of notes from Martin Short and his incredible performances as Thimbletack, then I tried to bring that to the studio, tried to bring that to this production of it, and they said, No, do your own thing. So I did that and it happened to work, which is good. We created an incredible monster, mutant, Frankenstein Thimbletack with all the different voices I do, and made an incredible character out of it with the help of Aron and Kat, our writer and director, and showrunner. It just was a marvelous time.
Playing In The Spiderwick Chronicles World
Noah Cottrell: Oh, yeah, it was awesome. In this format, eight episodes, everybody’s character has so much time to develop. And you can see everybody’s relationships with each other, the riffs, and everybody’s going through their own thing. You see the characters have their ups and downs. It’s really interesting.
Lyon Daniels: Yeah, it’s a fresh new take. It’s, It still respects the original work of Tony and Holly, but it integrates very real issues in this generation. And to integrate it into a magical setting and getting to explore the characters in a series exploring their complexities and their nuances. It’s so awesome and it’s turned out beautiful.
Mychala Lee: This was a breath of fresh air for me. I had just come off of two very serious projects, other shows, and I was like, this is perfect. I need something a little bit lighter with kids and fantasmic and all of these amazing creatures in this fantasy world. But it’s still really rooted in reality and real life issues, which I think melds together so beautifully.
Alyvia Alyn Lind: So much fun. I had the best time ever getting to play Christian Slater’s right hand man. It was just such an honor. We had the best time on set and had the most fun filming and got to do a lot of scenes together. Our scenes are outrageous and crazy. One of the first days on set was an all night shoot, and we were filming into like four in the morning on a bridge in the middle of Vancouver, in the middle of the forest, and it was freezing cold and raining. Weather was just not it, even though I love night shoots so much. I remember I was with him, and we were in the heating tent, and we just talked for those two hours. That was one of our first days meeting each other and that broke the ice in a lot of ways. Because I was such a huge fan. I was trying not to fan girl. We just talked about life and everything. He’s just the coolest person ever.
The Spiderwick Chronicles Cast Reveals What They’re Excited For Fans To See
Mychala Lee: I think I’m most excited for fans to see Mulgarath because it’s mind blowing what they did.
Lyon Daniels: I’m so excited for fans to see Mulgarath. It’s a new take. He’s more cunning, more conniving, and also our little cat and mouse scenes that we have, I always say Peter Pan and Hook, because it feels like that. It was very, very fun to act out with Christian. I’m so excited for people to see that.
Noah Cottrell: There’s a lot of creatures that people that are already fans of it, or people that have never seen the movie or read the books, they’re going to appreciate it. They’re going to enjoy it. And there’s new creatures as well.
The Spiderwick Chronicles comes to The Roku Channel on April 19th.
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About The Spiderwick Chronicles
Look closer… Magical creatures are real. Based on the best-selling novels.
The Spiderwick Chronicles comes to The Roku Channel on April 19th.
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. She is also a Freelance Writer. Tessa has been in the Entertainment writing business for ten years and is a member of several Critics Associations including the Critics Choice Association and the Greater Western New York Film Critics Association.