Goosebumps EPs Talk Freaks And Geeks Influence, R.L. Stine Touchstones & More [Exclusive Interview]
Today, Disney+ and Hulu unleashed a new take on R.L. Stine's beloved "Goosebumps" book series with a TV series adaptation developed by Rob Letterman (director of the 2015 "Goosebumps" movie) and Nicholas Stoller (typically known for directing R-rated comedies like "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Neighbors," but also writing family friendly fare like the "Dora the Explorer" and "Captain Underpants" movies). Trust me when I say you'll want to give this series a chance, because it takes the scares to a more mature level than we've seen in previous "Goosebumps" adaptations and injects it with a refreshing and genuine teenage perspective, both in comedy and horror.
For those who maybe haven't been keeping up, the new "Goosebumps" series follows a group of five high schoolers (played by Ana Yi Puig, Miles McKenna, Will Price, Zack Morris, and Isa Briones) 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.
With the first five episodes of "Goosebumps" available on Disney+ and hulu now, we spoke with executive producers Pavun Shetty (EP of "The Boys" and "Gen V") and Conor Welch (EP of "Platonic" on Apple TV+) about developing the series with a fresh, new take on "Goosebumps." Shetty and Welch locked into "Freaks and Geeks" as their north star for the show's backbone in order to bring some levity to the horror without taking away from the terror factor. It's the kind of approach that also grounds the books in a group of characters who are dealing with the trials and tribulations of high school alongside all of the "Goosebumps" frights. But the parents of our teenage main characters are also a big part of the story, with influences being drawn from "A Nightmare on Elm Street" but with an ensemble cast that includes day players like Rob Huebel and Rachael Harris, not to mention Justin Long being both spooky and funny.
Read our full interview with Pavun Shetty and Conor Welch below, but beware of minor spoilers.
'...It was the first series to me that made reading fun...'
All right, AlI've seen the first eight episodes of "Goosebumps," and I'm so happy to see how good it is.
Pavun Shetty: I'm glad you said that.
Conor Welch: That's commitment.
Shetty: That is amazing. Seriously. That's good.
Just to begin with, I wanted to find out, what's your history with the "Goosebumps" books?
Shetty: I'll let Conor speak for himself. But both of us grew up reading the books. Actually, it was right in the sweet spot of our formative years reading, so I used to steal them off of my sister's bookshelf. She's three years older than me, and I would read them, and I always had that feeling that I was reading something that was a little bit too old for me, that I was sneaking and doing something that I shouldn't have been doing. I loved them growing up. I watched the original series in the '90s too.
So it was fortuitous when I started working at this company, Original Film, where I'm now, that we had just done the first ["Goosebumps"] movie. So Rob Letterman, who directed that movie, he also created this series, so we started talking about what that would look like. But for me, it was a thrill because I actually liked everything growing up, and I was a huge fan of the actual property, and I rarely get to do shows like that.
Welch: Yeah, same. I also grew up as the first books came out, and it was the first series to me that made reading fun, as opposed to just homework or a task for my parents, or punishment or something. Yeah, I was knee-deep in them very early on. But even cooler for me is, more recently, my oldest daughter has gotten into the book series.
Oh, nice!
Welch: She's now tearing through the same scary stories that I did at her age, so it's just amazing for her to remind me of some of the classics, to be able to talk about some of the scary turns and some of the funny stuff. And now, to make a series that, hopefully, we will be able to watch together, is a first for me and is really, really exciting.
Yeah, I don't know about you guys, but I actually still have my entire "Goosebumps" collection from when I was a kid.
Welch: That's awesome.
Shetty: That's impressive. I'll have to get mine out to L.A. from Chicago, but it's a little bit of a bubble.
The initial touchstone was 'Freaks and Geeks'
How did Rob Letterman end up staying involved with this iteration of "Goosebumps" for Disney+ [and Hulu]? Since he'd already directed the movie, which has such a different tone that's a much more family friendly horror adventure, and this series leans into a little bit more mature teen territory. How did Rob end up sticking around and being the right person for an entirely different take on "Goosebumps" this time?
Shetty: Rob was actually the guy who had the idea to do it as a series, so that's why we started talking about it. His intention was, if we were going to do a new version of it, we needed to do a version that felt fresh and felt new, and felt like it had a real reason for existing but still honored the original. So what he wanted to do was take all the iconic stories and do a really elevated take on them. We really wanted the show to be authentically funny and dramatic and scary, so we made a show that was supposed to appeal to both kids and adults, and hopefully it did.
I think that's a big change from the movie and from the books, which felt a little bit younger. Rob's initial touchstone for this was "Freaks and Geeks." He wanted it to have a real awkward teen comedy vibe and then add real horror on top of it. That was the north star, marrying comedy and horror in a way that felt sophisticated and elevated, but still held on to what everyone loved about the original books.
That's probably too what [executive producer] Nicholas Stoller brings to the table too, because I think that there's definitely a touch of genuine comedy that shines through along with the horror, and that's really refreshing. Sometimes you have filmmakers that succeed at one but not necessarily at the other, and there's a really great balance here.
Welch: Well, that's Stoller and my sweet spot, the edgier comedy space. When Pavun and [Original Film's co-founder and executive producer] Neal [Moritz] and Rob Letterman came to us looking to collaborate on this, it was really exciting that they wanted to age it up a bit, make it a little more sophisticated, a little more premium and a little edgier, frankly, in its tone. Stoller, as well as his daughters, are also fans of the book, it was an immediate yes to us as something that we would be really excited in reinvigorating and developing to make something that feels like it should live on its own as opposed to just a retreading of old territory.
Shetty: Rob and Nick Stoller have worked together plenty of times in the past, and Conor and I have known each other for a long time, so it's fun to do a show where all of us knew each other well and just got to do something fun like this together.
'...it should be a little bit scarier and a little bit funnier maybe than the audience expects'
Was there ever any pushback from Disney+ or anything as far as how scary you could push to make it? Because this definitely leans into more mature territory and it has a teenage level of horror. Was it difficult trying to crack that balance and figure out what was maybe too scary?
Welch: I wouldn't say pushback, but we definitely worked hand in hand to make sure that we were toeing that line the whole way through. They were intimately involved right along through the VFX process, making sure that things were scary without ever getting too gory, or funny without ever dipping into the inappropriate territory. Because it's really important to us that this be a tone and a ride that adults can enjoy without children, and that parents can also watch with their kids and be excited and not nervous about that. But similar to the book series, as Pavun alluded to earlier, it should be a little bit scarier and a little bit funnier maybe than the audience expects. I think that's part of the excitement of it. It makes it feel a little bit taboo for the younger audience, but still a thrilling ride for the adults.
You mentioned "Freaks and Geeks" as your touchstone for the comedy, but what were some of the inspirations that you took from horror? There's a little bit of "It" in there, there's a little bit of "Nightmare On Elm Street." What were some of the other key influences for you guys?
Shetty: Yeah, I think those are good ones. It obviously has kids dealing with real horrors and trying to save themselves in their town. And "Nightmare On Elm Street" has an angle with the parents too in the original "Nightmare On Elm Street," which this does also. I think we talked about "Scream" a lot, the original "Scream" too. Because obviously that was super scary, but it was also genuinely funny, and they were really surprising in what they did with that movie in combining those two genres. So we talked about a lot about "Scream" in the early development.
One of the best things about the show is you guys play with the books in such an exciting way, where you're not necessarily being super dedicated to the lore of the books. You put fresh spins on their concepts, and the nostalgia, moreso, comes from the '90s itself. Can you talk about the discussions as far as how loyal you wanted to be to the books, and just letting the vibe of the series lean into that "Scream" territory? Because "Scream" happens in the 90s, in what was present day then, and this series has that '90s vibe, especially with the soundtrack, without feeling overly nostalgic and sentimental about it.
Welch: Great. Yeah, it was important to us to capture the DNA of the original R.L. Stine series, because there's a reason that it is the second-highest selling young adult book series of all time. And it's because it's surprising at every turn. It's a little funnier and a little scarier than you expect. And all of the plot and stories and complications grow out of very relatable everyday issues that kids and adults go through. That was super important to us as well.
The architecture of the series, the first five episodes are inspired by five of the more popular books in the cannon. Each of the totems from these books are what haunt each of our five main high school characters. So those, again, were born of very relatable issues — whether it is identity or trolling, or being a wallflower, or having the weight of the world on your shoulders — and then elevated through these horrific totems to a very cinematic place. Then, about halfway through this season, each of our five main characters realize that these hauntings are probably related, so they have to get together to solve the mystery and save the town.
Shetty: I think those issues that Conor talked about exist with high school kids now, and they existed with high school kids in the '90s. Those are timeless issues that every kid faces. In the show, we do jump back [in time at one point], but our kids see that their parents were dealing with the exact same things they were going through. So even though they're wearing scrunchies and Starter jackets in those scenes, the actual things they were doing on a day-to-day basis were actually identifiable to our high school kids in the show, and hopefully to audiences of different generations who are watching it too.
'I think the mask is a great example of a tangible tactile object that slowly but surely turns into a monster that's augmented by VFX...'
Speaking of the totems, I wanted to specifically ask about "The Haunted Mask," because the design of that mask, the imagery has become iconic, because the artwork for those original books is just so memorable and incredible. You guys went in an entirely different direction with the mask, but then also deliver a bit of a surprise by eventually throwing it back to that original design. What was the process of figuring out exactly what the evolution of the mask would look like and how that would unfold?
Shetty: We had a bunch of practical masks that we knew we were going to use for majority, because the character, Isabelle, actually puts it on and tries to take it off. So we had a version that was straight-faced, we had the version that had a little bit of a smirk, and then the super scary smile. But the intention was always to morph that into an actual troll with CGI. A lot of the discussion revolved around how long do we keep a practical before seeing the full troll, and so we played a lot with that. But yeah, the iconography of the original cover was huge.
That's, in particular, one of my favorite books, because the idea of something not coming off your face is just this weird, scary, visceral thing that I have. So it was fun to just put those strands of goo as she's taking them off, while making it scary but not too intense. And the mask, it was just a really good example of a totem that someone could find, but it was still very, very specific to the book.
Welch: It's also illustrative of our attempt at marrying practical effects with VFX. I feel like a contemporary viewer's eye is trained to really pick up things that are digital. So it was important to us, similar in keeping with the throwback vibe of old horror films and such, that this be really tactile feeling and elevated with VFX when we needed to. I think the mask is a great example of a tangible tactile object that slowly but surely turns into a monster that's augmented by VFX, but not entirely drawn by it.
You mentioned the practical effects, and one of my favorite practical effects is the yellow goop that splatters whenever one of the James clones explodes. What was it made of? Did you guys get to touch it at all, being on set or anything? I'm so fascinated by it.
Shetty: There were a lot of tests on that...
Welch: A lot of tests.
Shetty: ... to see how viscous it was, the color, to make sure it felt good. We went through a bunch of different color trials, and a lot of it was practical. We put it on the walls. I think one of the first times you see it is around the pool table, so the pool table was covered when the ball hits James. But then we also enhanced it with VFX. We had to make those match up. That was a little bit tricky, because we had all these practical gloops and glops all over the walls. But then the explosions tended to be a little bit bigger than that, and the consistency was different. There was a lot of trial and error with that, but it was fun.
'Then there's a lot of other little things that are in a bunch of 'Goosebumps' books'
Whose idea was it to bring in day players who are more traditionally known for their comedy work, like Rob Huebel and Rachael Harris for a show this? Because you wouldn't anticipate bringing in that kind of talent for a show that is a horror show.
Welch: Well, that was the idea from the inception, that we wanted really funny actors who had comedic timing and could land the joke. That was really important to us, that this be legitimately funny but also had the depth to be able to play the nuance of drama and to be able to really showcase emotion. Because it was important to us also that everything was grounded in real human emotions.
Starting with Justin Long, who has done both comedy and horror so well in the past, he was coming off of "Barbarian" around the time that we cast him. And then Rachael Harris and Rob Huebel. Similarly, for the kids, I think most of whom will be new faces to our audience, it was really important to us that they have great comedic timing, that there was a chemistry there that lent some levity to otherwise scary situations, but also they could really land real feeling human emotions. Again, traversing between those two genres was really important to us from the outset.
Were there any books that you thought would play a part in this first season but ended up getting maybe cut out from the story, or didn't feel like they fit in well with the other ones that you guys chose?
Shetty: I don't think there are any books in particular that we talked about that we didn't have a story revolve around. The idea from the beginning was, let's take five of these for the first five episodes, and then once all of the kids get together and discover what's going on and have to save the day, then we're going to broaden it out and have a completely serialized story from that point forward. But we always wanted to pull from different books, and pull little elements from different books. Slappy is a huge part of the show, and he is the most famous "Goosebumps" character there is. We didn't pull specifically from "Night of the Living Dummy," but there's a lot of aspects from that book that take place throughout the entire back half of the series.
Then there's a lot of other little things that are in a bunch of "Goosebumps" books. Haunted houses are a big thing. Obviously, we are revolving around a creepy house. A kid moving to a new town and finding out that things aren't as they seem as a big thing, and we have Justin Long doing that. Freaky staircases, which we showcase a lot. So we just wanted to make sure that people who read the books and appreciated the books like we did, were really finding things in all of the episodes, even if there wasn't a specific episode about a specific book.
I was impressed with how you guys worked in the "Give Yourself Goosebumps" books. Because it's hard to bring in the "choose your own adventure" style, but because of the journal, it works so well with that episode.
Welch: Yeah.
Shetty: Yeah, you really got a lot. You're picking up on it.
Welch: I know, this is great!
I'm a fan!
Welch: An actual fan.
'Our hope and intention is to continue the story with these characters that we've established'
Now, I'm curious, I've only seen the first eight episodes, we don't have the final two for screeners, and so maybe this will be answered by that. But do you envision this as the kind of series where we'll stick with the same characters in future seasons, or will it be more of a thing where it's like anthology seasons, where the next season would have a whole new set of characters and a whole different roster of books that could tie into their lives?
Conor Welch: Our hope and intention is to continue the story with these characters that we've established. They really just had such an excellent chemistry. It was fun to watch their dynamics grow and shift and deepen. I think there are many more episodes to be told with this group and many, many more books that we haven't even touched, that we are lucky enough to be able to dig into to draw inspiration for many seasons to come. But yeah, the short answer is, for sure, we'll serialize with this same group moving forward, if we're lucky enough to have that opportunity.
To wrap up here, could you each name a book that you haven't adapted yet that you would like to try and figure out how to fit into the series at some point?
Shetty: I remember one of the weirdest books was "Chicken Chicken." I just remember the cover was just so bizarre to me. I don't know how we'd fit that in, but I think "Chicken Chicken," if we were lucky enough to get a season 2, there's got to be something going on with that book, which I think is always just stuck in my head.
Welch: For me, I'd say "HorrorLand." I don't know, theme parks after dark are just creepy places to live in. I feel like some way to take advantage of the "HorrorLand" books, I think, would be really fun as well. I think there's a deep well for horror and comedy in that space too.
Nice. My personal favorite one, when I was a kid, was "Attack of the Mutant," so my fingers are crossed that there'll be some way to tie that in sometime in the future.
Welch: Here's to hoping!
The first five episodes of the "Goosebumps" series are available on Disney+ now, and new episodes arrive on Fridays.