The Spiderwick Chronicles Trailer Brings The Beloved Books To Life

We love a good fantasy adventure series and that’s why we’re excited about The Spiderwick Chronicles, coming to Roku on April 19. Based on the beloved book series by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, the eight-episode series will bring the fairies, ogres, and other magical creatures to our home screens and, based on the trailer, it’s going to be great.

The story begins when mom Helen (Joy Bryant) and her children, 15-year-old fraternal twins Jared (Lyon Daniels) and Simon (Noah Cotrell) and their sister Mallory (Mychala Lee) move from New York to their family’s palatial — if a little bit spooky — ancestral home, Spiderwick Estate in Michigan. As we know, all the coolest old mansions have low-key goth names. But when Jared discovers a boggart (think “fairy, but creepy”) he realizes magic isn’t a fairy tale: it’s real. And so too are magical creatures who wander the halls of their new home.

The only person to believe him is his great-aunt Lucinda, who urges Jared to find her father’s field guide. It might just be the only thing that will protect the family from Mulgarath (Christian Slater), an evil and bloodthirsty ogre.

“It is an honor to bring The Spiderwick Chronicles, a spectacular adventure-filled story led by the incredible Christian Slater and Joy Bryant, exclusively to The Roku Channel,” Brian Tannenbaum, head of originals for Roku Media said in a press release when the show was acquired. “We cannot wait to introduce this exquisitely crafted series, imagined by a world-class creative team, to millions of streamers.”

Fans of the original franchise, which comprises eight novels in two series — The Spiderwick Chronicles and Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, published between 2003 and 2009 — and a 2009 film starring Freddie Highmore and Seth Rogen, expressed excitement on X (formerly Twitter) regarding the trailer.

“2024 suddenly got dramatically better,” declared @octokuro_model.

“YES! New generation of Spiderwick fans!” cheered @stargazerseye.

Others were excited that the Grace family is being depicted as Black.

“I just found out they’re doing a spiderwick series with black children,” tweeted @cherryfloww1. “Nearly burst into tears.”

There’s a lot we still don’t know about this whimsically dark series (for example: will it be a book an episode or a season per book?) but fortunately we don’t have too long to wait!