Disney Plus Just Canceled A Completed Show Before It Actually Aired - Report

Disney+ is no longer going forward with releasing its adaptation of The Spiderwick Chronicles, Deadline is reporting. The eight-episode series from Paramount Television Studios and 20th Television has been completed, with Paramount currently shopping it for other potential buyers.

The Spiderwick Chronicles is the latest causality of the trend of media companies like Netflix, Paramount, and Max reevaluating their content releases, cutting programming costs, and focusing on profitability. This started with David Zaslav restructuring Warner Bros. and then-HBO Max release schedule, going as far as deleting the Batgirl solo movie.

The series would have been an adaptation of Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black's beloved YA series, originally published in 2003. The story is centered around a family who stumbles onto a book that reveals the lore of fairies and other mythical creatures. Spiderwick Chronicles was previously adapted for film in 2008 by Mean Girls director Mark Waters and received generally favorable reviews.

The already-shot series stars Jack Dylan Grazer, Lyon Daniels, Noah Cottrell, Joy Bryant, and Mychala Lee, with Christian Slater tapped to play the first season's villain, the shape-shifting ogre Mulgarath.

This project aside, Disney still is planning on releasing and adaptation of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson book series. That show is being developed in-house, however, and is based on novels that Disney originally published through its Hyperion imprint.