One of the many announcements from the 2021 Disney+ Day was a new series from 20th Television and Paramount based on the popular book, “The Spiderwick Chronicles” by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi.

“The Spiderwick Chronicles” follows the Grace family as they move from Brooklyn, New York, to their ancestral home in Henson, Michigan, the Spiderwick Estate. Helen (Joy Bryant) makes a move with her 15-year-old fraternal twin boys, Jared (Lyon Daniels) and Simon (Noah Cottrell), and her older daughter, Mallory (Mychala Lee). Shortly after moving to the Spiderwick Estate, Jared discovers a boggart and realizes that magical creatures are real! The only one to believe him is his great-aunt Lucinda (Charlayne Woodard), who implores Jared to find the pages of her father’s field guide to magical creatures and protect them from the murderous Ogre, Mulgarath (Christian Slater).

However, last year, it was revealed that Disney and Paramount sold the show to Roku, as part of a way of saving Disney some money and reorganising its content plans, with Paramount Global Content Distribution taking over the distribution for the series internationally.

But it looks like that might have been a mistake, as Roku has announced that “The Spiderwick Chronicles” has become the most-watched on-demand title to debut on The Roku Channel.  The show amassed the highest reach and most hours streamed of any title in The Roku Channel’s history during its opening weekend. The series also earned the highest daily reach and most hours streamed of any title to ever debut on The Roku Channel in a singular day.

Brian Tannenbaum, Head of Originals, Roku Media, said in a statement:

“This weekend, millions of streamers immersed themselves in the vibrant world created by Aron Coleite and the hundreds of artists behind ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles.  The record-breaking performance of this special show, and the best-in-class platform marketing powering it, are a testament to the hard work of all teams who worked tirelessly behind it.”

The showrunner for “The Spiderwick Chronicles” is Aron Eli Coleite, and Kat Coiro directed the first two episodes of the series. Aron Eli Coleite, Kat Coiro, Tony DiTerlizzi, Holly Black, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, D.J. Goldberg, Julie Kane-Ritsch and Grace Gilroy also executive produce.

It looks like Roku has been able to make the most of this former Disney+ Original, and with the show being available for free in the US, it makes sense that it was able to pull in an audience.  It’ll be interesting to see if Roku wants to move ahead on a second season, as it’ll have to pay the full costs in making it, as no doubt, it was able to get the show much cheaper once Disney decided it didn’t want it.

Did you check out “The Spiderwick Chronicles” on Roku?  Let us know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

View all posts