R.L. Stine gave the new ‘Goosebumps’ TV series his blessing

Just in time for spooky season comes the new TV series Goosebumps, which fittingly drops on Disney+ and Hulu this Friday the 13th.

Based on the popular children’s horror books by R. L. Stine, this new adaptation of Goosebumps got the seal of approval from the scribe himself, series creator Rob Letterman told ABC Audio.

“We got his blessing. We showed him the episodes, which he loved,” Letterman said. “The books that he wrote never pandered down to a younger audience, which we embraced and kind of used that concept to then, you know, age everything up and elevate it.”

Stine also gave Letterman and co-creator Nicholas Stoller some helpful advice about how to accurately capture the overarching theme of his books, which is to be careful what you wish for.

“That’s something that is, like, key to his books and key to the TV show,” Stoller said. “These are not paths of characters who move into a creepy house and then creepy stuff happens to them. These are characters that want stuff, and they use the thing that they get to create the problem. And I think there’s something very active about that, and relatable, too.”

Letterman says this new adaptation honors the source material as well as the fans who grew up reading the books.

“They’re in their thirties and forties now,” Letterman said. “That’s still part of the Goosebumps audience. So, we wanted to make something that would work for them, for adults with or without kids, as well as a younger audience and for people who’d never even heard of Goosebumps.”