One of the many new shows announced for Disney+ during the 2021 Disney+ Day was “The Spiderwick Chronicles”, which is based on the popular book by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, and is a modern coming-of-age story combined with a fantasy-adventure as the Grace Family – twin brothers Jared and Simon, their sister Mallory and mother Helen – move into their dilapidated ancestral home and begin to unravel a dark mystery about their great-great uncle, who once discovered the secret and maybe foreboding faerie world existing parallel to their own.

The new series will star Christian Slater, Lyon Daniels, Joy Bryant, Mychala Lee, Noah Cottrell, Momona Tamada & Alyvia Alyn Lind.   The eight-episode series has been created by Paramount Television Studios and 20th Television. Aron Eli Coleite wrote the script for the series and is also the showrunner and an executive producer along with Holly Black, Jack Dylan Grazer, Tony DiTerlizzi, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, D.J. Goldberg, and Julie Kane-Ritsch.    “She-Hulk” director, Kat Coiro, has directed two of the episodes of the upcoming series.

However, it has been revealed by Deadline, that the show will no longer be released on Disney+. Instead, Paramount will now try to sell the series to another buyer, since the show wrapped filming in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, earlier this year.

Disney has been cutting back on how much money it spends on original programming for its streaming services and is now focused on profitability, especially with the upcoming merger between Hulu and Disney+.  This show may have been included in the May write-off, which saw over $2 billion worth of content being removed from Disney+ and Hulu.

Disney is reassessing its live-action strategy for upcoming Disney+ shows and is looking to focus more on its established franchises.  Since “The Spiderwick Chronicles” is a non-Disney franchise that was being co-created with another studio, it looks like this series was considered unnecessary for Disney+ and looks like the show was effectively sold to Paramount.

Were you looking forward to watching “The Spiderwick Chronicles” series on Disney+? 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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