Lyon Daniels and Noah Cottrell have been cast in two of the lead roles in “The Spiderwick Chronicles” series currently in the works at Disney+, Variety has confirmed.
The pair join previously announced cast member Christian Slater, who will play the villain Mulgarath. The show was first announced as part of Disney+ Day in November 2021. Based on the best-selling children’s books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, “The Spiderwick Chronicles” follows the Grace family — twin brothers Jared (Daniels) and Simon (Cottrell), sister Mallory and their mother Helen — as they move into their great-great uncle’s home and discover a world of fairies that exists parallel to their own.
Daniels (“We Can Be Heroes,” “Patriot”) is repped by A3 Artists Agency and Industry Entertainment. Cottrell (“The Gordita Chronicles,” “Punky Brewster”) is repped by Innovative Artists, The Kim Dawson Agency, and Goodman Genow.
The new “Spiderwick Chronicles” series hails from Paramount Television Studios and 20th Television. Aron Eli Coleite will serve as showrunner, and Coleite, Black, DiTerlizzi, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, D.J. Goldberg and Julie Kane-Ritsch will executive produce. Kat Coiro is the director on the first two episodes and will also executive produce.
The series contains five books, “The Field Guide,” “The Seeing Stone,” “Lucinda’s Secret,” “The Ironwood Tree” and “The Wrath of Mulgarath.” A spinoff series, titled “Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles,” consists of three novels: “The Nixie’s Song,” “A Giant Problem” and “The Wyrm King.”
A film adaptation of the books debuted in 2008, and starred Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger, Mary-Louise Parker, Martin Short, Nick Nolte and Seth Rogen. Directed by Mark Waters, the movie made $162.8 million at the box office and received generally positive reviews from critics. There has also been a video game adaptation of the books, which was released in 2008.
Deadline first reported these castings