Disney+ Revives an 81-Year-Old Icon to Take On Netflix's Wednesday

Netflix turned The Addams Family into a monster hit with Wednesday, which nobody saw coming until Jenna Ortega put the whole show on her back and Tim Burton coated it in his usual macabre gloss (plus a few of his regular collaborators). The result: Wednesday delivered Netflix’s most-watched season for an English-language series. Now Disney+ wants a piece of that spooky-teen pie with... Casper. Yes, that Casper.

So, a darker Casper? Really?

Per Deadline, Disney+ is developing a modern take on Casper that is, reportedly, aimed at the same lane Wednesday lives in: serialized, character-driven, and with a moodier tone than you might expect from a ghost who is literally branded as friendly.

"A modern update" with "a dark edge," per Deadline.

That combo sounds a little like oil and water, but the team behind it makes the pitch a lot more interesting.

Who is making this thing

• Rob Letterman and Hilary Winston are executive producing. They just steered Disney+’s hit supernatural series Goosebumps, and Letterman also directed the 2015 Goosebumps movie.
• Steven Spielberg is on board as an executive producer, returning to the character after serving as an EP on the 1995 Casper movie.
• Universal actually owns Casper outright, and the series is being co-produced by Universal’s DreamWorks Animation TV and UCP, making this a rare Disney+ franchise that doesn’t come from Disney’s own vault.

The tone problem (and why it could still work)

Wednesday’s vibe made total sense for The Addams Family. Casper has always skewed more family-friendly, so pushing into something darker is a trickier lift. Still, there’s a surprising amount of material to play with in the Harvey Comics corner of the sandbox. Beyond Casper himself, the mythology includes the Ghostly Trio (Stretch, Fatso, and Stinkie), and possible crossovers with other Harvey characters like Wendy the Good Little Witch, Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost, and Hot Stuff the Little Devil. If the show leans into that world-building, there’s room for a serialized mystery that still feels like Casper.

Expect a lot of CG (again)

Like the 1995 movie with Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman, the new series will almost certainly bring its spectral star to life with CGI. That worked back then; with modern tech (and a TV budget that Disney+ is willing to flex when it wants to), it could be a visual hook.

What this needs to nail

Wednesday wasn’t just Tim Burton aesthetics; it had a breakout performance front and center. Casper is going to need that same electricity—either from whoever performs as Casper, or from a human lead in the Kat Harvey mold (Christina Ricci’s role in the ’95 film ). If they capture that, the friendly ghost could haunt a whole new generation in the best way.

Bottom line: on paper, making Casper moodier sounds odd. But with the Goosebumps team, Spielberg, and a surprisingly deep character bench, Disney+ might actually pull off a supernatural crowd-pleaser that feels fresh without ditching what makes Casper, well, Casper.