This past Friday, Disney released the first five episodes of the new series, “Goosebumps, the chilling new series inspired by R.L. Stine’s worldwide bestselling Scholastic book series, on Disney+ and Hulu.

The series 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.

If you don’t have Disney+ or Hulu, the good news is that Disney has released the first two episodes on the Roku channel in many countries, including the United States and the UK, for free.   While it might seem strange for Disney to offer a single episode on the Roku channel for free, this is a great marketing option to promote a new series and Disney+ to an audience that might not have been aware of the show and, ideally, might encourage new subscribers.  Disney also aired the first two episodes on the Freeform channel, with the same premise to encourage people to sign up to Disney+ for the rest of the show.

With Roku being one of the most popular streaming devices, this free episode will be a great advertising opportunity for the show and Disney+, with very few downsides, especially since Disney dropped five episodes on its own platform, to help get new viewers engaged in the show.

Disney has previously done a similar tactic with the Disney+ Original, “American Born Chinese”, where three episodes of the show had been made available for a limited time.  So it’s likely this free episode of “Goosebumps” will only be around during the Halloween seaso

“Goosebumps” stars Justin Long (“Barbarian”) and Rachael Harris (“Lucifer”), alongside newcomers Zack Morris (“EastEnders”), Isa Briones (“Star Trek: Picard”), Miles McKenna (“Guilty Party”), Ana Yi Puig (“Gossip Girl”) and Will Price (“The Equalizer”).

Nicholas Stoller (“The Muppets”) and Rob Letterman (“Pokémon Detective Pikachu”) developed the series and serve as executive producers, alongside Hilary Winston (“Community”), Neal H. Moritz (“Fast & Furious” franchise”), Scholastic Entertainment’s Iole Lucchese (“Clifford the Big Red Dog”), Pavun Shetty (“The Boys”), Conor Welch (“Platonic”), Scholastic Entertainment’s Caitlin Friedman (“Stillwater”), Erin O’Malley (“New Girl”) and Kevin Murphy (“Desperate Housewives”). James Eagan (“DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”) and Nick Adams (“BoJack Horseman”) serve as co-executive producers.

The first five episodes of “Goosebumps” are available to stream now on Disney+ and Hulu, with a new episode will be released on Friday for the next five weeks.

Will you be checking out “Goosebumps” 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

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