Goosebumps Executive Producers discuss Justin Long, Slappy, and getting R.L. Stine’s approval for the 2023 Hulu & Disney+ series in this exclusive interview.
Goosebumps comes to Disney+ and Hulu with an all new series that is sure to have long time fans thrilled. It perfectly embodies the world created by R.L. Stine, while also being its own thing. It works largely in part because of the brilliant writing and the incredible cast. We caught up with some of the creators to discuss the new series.
Goosebumps Executive Producers Rob Letterman and Hilary Winston reveal the pressure that comes with developing a series from such a well loved franchise. They also talk about bringing on the incredible cast, deciding which books to feature, and the potential for more seasons.
Rob Letterman and Hilary Winston Talk Goosebumps
Mama’s Geeky: I am a giant Goosebumps fan. I grew up reading it. Was there a little bit of pressure that comes along with creating a series from such a well loved franchise?
Rob Letterman: Yeah. I mean, listen, I feel pressure all the time. On a lot of things. There’s a lot of pressure and responsibility because you want to do right by the fans. You want to do right by the original creator, obviously. But you know, that’s also what inspires making it and keeps you going. I think that it is all healthy pressure for making this thing.
Hilary Winston: And Rob directed the movie, so he had some experience with handling the material before tackling it into a series. So that was that helped out a lot.
Mama’s Geeky: Well, I absolutely loved it. I got screeners for the first eight episodes and binged them in a day. I couldn’t stop. But the end of episode eight feels conclusive in a way that I have no idea where things go from here.
Hilary Winston: I think any good horror movie, you think the threat is gone. If you ever think that in horror movie, you should be careful.
Mama’s Geeky: That’s true. Something I love so much about this Goosebumps series is the dynamic of the cast. They work so well together. They are all fantastic, especially Justin Long. Can you talk about working with all of them?
Rob Letterman: Yeah, he’s amazing. The cast is awesome. I mean, I have got to be honest, we worked really hard. The writers worked incredibly hard. The whole show is a lot of talented people putting in a lot of hard work. And the cast really does elevate it all to the next level. Our five teens are amazing. That was a really rigorous auditioning casting process to find these people. And we got so lucky and they became friends. They hadn’t met each other. So they became friends outside of the show, while shooting it and it really bleeds into the series. Hopefully you noticed that watching the episodes. So that was amazing. Justin’s next level. He’s doing comedy. He’s funny. He’s scary. He’s weird. He’s charming. He’s pathetic. He’s doing so much stuff. It’s really incredible. Rachael Harris is amazing. Rob Huebel. We’re very fortunate.
Hilary Winston: One of the things about Justin, since you mentioned to him specifically, is that, Justin is tough on writers. Justin gets a script, and he’s not just like, “Okay, just show us how to do this.” He has questions. He’s so into his character. He wants to know the motivations. He wants to know what’s coming down the pipeline. Does this make sense with what’s coming down the pipeline? Where were we in the last episode? Is he in the right headspace? He is an actor that can really look at the entire picture in a way that is so refreshing as a writer because that’s what we do all the time – look at the big picture. And when he’s asking those questions, it’s amazing. And it really helps take everything up a notch.
Mama’s Geeky: Without spoilers, he is essentially playing two different characters. The way he can switch within seconds is impressive.
Rob Letterman: It’s crazy.
Hilary Winston: Episode 109, without spoiling anything, is an episode where we get to know a lot more about Nathan Bratt, the character that Justin plays, and it’s really such a fun thing to get to go back in time and see who Nathan Bratt was before he arrived in Port Lawrence. And it gives us a chance to take a little breath after all the action.
Mama’s Geeky: I can’t wait. Since I am such a big fan of Goosebumps, I love how this series honors the lore while also creating a bit more for each story. How did you decide which books to borrow from for season one?
Rob Letterman: That happened really early on when Nick Stoller and I were coming up with the concept of it, cracking what this whole show could be. When we landed on the notion of — the book series, as you know, is an anthology series and the show is serialized. We wanted to pay tribute to the idea of those books. We started mapping books, storylines to characters, and that they would intersect, that was a big concept. The way we picked them, once we crafted the characters and the dynamics, then we went through the first 60 Goosebumps books that came out. We went into those and kept honing it down. Then we found the books that fit the characters the best, and they happen to be very well known Goosebumps books. So it worked out.
Hilary Winston: And the good thing with R.L. Stine is, you’re never going to run out of material.
Mama’s Geeky: Can we talk about Slappy a little bit? I feel like he was an obvious choice to be included.
Rob Letterman: We tried to keep that close to the vest and not reveal it until later when people watch the episodes. Then he ended up on the billboard so that went out the window. But it seems obvious now. Slappy is sort of the face of Goosebumps so yes, I think we deliver pretty well with Slappy, without giving anything away. There’s a lot there in the final two episodes.
Mama’s Geeky: Can you talk about his design? Because he looks so good in this.
Rob Letterman: Oh, that’s great. We wanted to do a fresh take on it, but still honor that original book cover of Night of the Living Dummy. It’s hard to say this without giving things away but for story reasons. There’s a vintage patina to Slappy that will make sense as you watch the whole ten episodes as to why that is. We really looked at the original ventriloquist dummies, dating all the way back to 1800s, and trying to break those things down. The whole show’s vibe is gritty and grounded and realistic, and that all poured into into the Slappy design.
Hilary Winston: If you can believe it, dummies actually were a lot creepier when they first started than you can possibly imagine.
Rob Letterman: And that’s real human hair if that you makes you feel more uncomfortable about Slappy.
Mama’s Geeky: The whole series is filled with great visuals. Without spoilers, there is a yellow goop that ends up all over some people. How long did it take to decide on the color and texture?
Rob Letterman: We were still messing with it up until like the last minute. The only rule we had, going in early on in the writing stage, I don’t want to give anything away, but we didn’t want it to be bloody. And then we didn’t want it to be silly. So it was a constant balancing act.
Hilary Winston: The show walks the line of fun and scary. So anything that we have in the show always had to be the fun, scary version. And that certainly falls into that category.
Mama’s Geeky: How involved with R.L. Stine with the series?
Rob Letterman: We got his blessing. I think it’s really important with any of these things, where you’re trying to adapt something from an original creator, to get their blessing, which we did. We had a shorthand with him because I did the movie back in 2015. And he was in the movie. So I got to know him. We are allowed to call him Bob, which is nice. He’s just a really sweet, sweet guy. I think there was a little bit of trust baked in on this round. But yeah, we talked him at the beginning, got his blessing. We showed him the episodes at the end and got a really nice note from him. It just feels good to make him feel good about about this.
GOOSEBUMPS premieres Friday, October 13th on Disney+ and Hulu, with the first five episodes dropping as part of Disney+’s “Hallowstream” and Hulu’s “Huluween” celebrations. New episodes streaming weekly on Fridays.
NEXT: Goosebumps Review: Fans Will Love The 2023 Series
About Goosebumps
Inspired by R.L. Stine’s worldwide bestselling book series, “Goosebumps” follows a group of five high schoolers as they embark on a shadowy and twisted journey to investigate the tragic passing three decades earlier of a teen named Harold Biddle – while also unearthing dark secrets from their parents’ past.
Goosebumps season one premieres on Hulu and Disney+ October 13th with the first 5 episodes
episodes to follow weekly, on Fridays, after that.
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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.