Last summer, writer and producer Aron Eli Coleite was on vacation in Las Vegas with his wife when he received an urgent call from Nicole Clemens, the president of Paramount Television.
Coleite was the showrunner on “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” a fantasy series produced by Paramount for Disney+. The show had recently wrapped production on its first season, but Clemens was calling with bad news: Disney had decided to pull the plugeffectively canceling the series before it aired.
Without warning, “The Spiderwick Chronicles” was “turning into one of those tax write-offs I’d heard so much about,” Coleite said in an interview. Christine McCarthy, Disney’s chief financial officer, he had said on an earnings call in May 2023 that Disney was in the process of a strategic shift that would lead to downsizing and cost-cutting across the board, starting with the removal and cancellation of some shows on its streaming platforms. “Spiderwick” was a casualty of those cuts, and “there was no fight against it,” Coleite said. (Disney declined to comment.)
Clemens said in an interview that she was shocked by the move. “We had started a second season and there was a lot of love and excitement for the project,” he said. “It was like, wow.”
But after facing certain extinction, “The Spiderwick Chronicles” was rescued by an unlikely savior: Roku Channel, the ad-supported streaming platform built into the company’s smart TV interfaces and standalone streaming devices. All eight episodes of “The Spiderwick Chronicles” debuted on Roku last week, joining the platform’s modest but growing library of original content, including “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” and the reboot of “The Great American Baking Show.”
So far the move has paid off: Roku announced Tuesday that “Spiderwick” had the best opening weekend of any on-demand title on the Roku Channel in terms of total streaming hours. (The streamer also offers live channels and sports.) Roku declined to provide specific numbers, saying only that “Spiderwick” was watched by “millions of streamers.” in her first three days on the platform.
The rescue was a stroke of luck for a series that seemed doomed to disappear forever — a fate that has befallen many other high-profile projects in recent years, including the “Coyote vs. Acme’ and ‘Batgirl’, both canceled by Warner Brothers Discovery. Coleite was excited to learn that Roku would be racing to acquire the discarded “Spiderwick”.
“It wasn’t just that we had to be saved,” he said. “It was that the work of the 300 artists who came together to make this show was going to be seen and not just thrown in a bin.”
Brian Tannenbaum, head of originals at Roku Channel, said “Spiderwick” was a perfect fit for the streamer, explaining that the series’ mix of real-life drama and fantasy magic was in keeping with the whimsical spirit of the Roku brand. When he was first presented with the opportunity to own the series, he watched the entire first season in one weekend and “followed it on Monday morning,” he said.
Based on the novels by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black – previously adapted into a big-budget film in 2009 – “The Spiderwick Chronicles” follows the adventures of the Grace family, including twins Simon (Noah Cottrell) and Jared (Lyon Daniels). ) and their sister, Mallory (Mychala Lee), who move into an old Victorian estate in rural America and discover a secret world of magic. There are fairies, goblins and evil dragons, as well as the usual conflicts and milestones surrounding adulthood.
The series, which also stars Joey Bryant and Christian Slater, ages the children’s characters in the books – they are now teenagers – and focuses on their emotions as much as magic. It’s a bit like “Harry Potter” meets “Silver Linings Playbook.”
“There are a lot of fantasy stories out there, but usually they’re set in a setting that doesn’t feel real,” said Kat Coiro, who directed several episodes, including the first two. “I loved that it was a true story about a real American family that was dealing with really tough issues like mental health issues.”
The series launched on Apple TV+ more than five years ago, with Barry Sonnenfeld as director. When Sonnenfeld left in 2020, Coleite replaced him — somewhat reluctantly, at first, because he had recently done a different magical Victorian series: “Locke and Key” for Netflix. But by the time “Spiderwick” moved to Disney, Coleite had fallen in love with the show, and as far as she could tell, Disney felt the same way.
“They called us the executive-run house,” he said. That’s why the sudden cancellation came as a shock.
“I thought I had experienced every kind of pain imaginable as a writer,” she said. “I’ve sold pilots that didn’t go into production. I’ve made pilots that didn’t go to series. But here was something completely new, where we could finish a whole series, be done with it, and they could say no, now it’s a tax write-off and nobody’s ever going to see it again. It’s really a cynical practice, devaluing the work of artists who bring them profit.”
Before the show debuted, Coleite worried that Disney’s cancellation would lead critics and viewers to assume that “if Disney didn’t want it, there must be something wrong with it.” He said he actively fought that idea, reaching out to reporters to challenge headlines he felt were misleading and messaging people on social media when they posted something untrue.
“I know everyone loves a flop in Hollywood, but that’s not the case with this story,” he added. “This was not a rejection from Disney. That’s not why it was canceled.”
The show’s performance so far has “delivered results beyond expectations,” Coleite wrote in an email Wednesday. “I’m overwhelmed and appreciate the public’s response.”
Roku has been heavily promoting “Spiderwick,” with themed advertising in “Roku City,” the platform’s scrolling screensaver, and interactive sidebar content that includes bonus features and sweepstakes. In part, it’s a testament to Roku’s enthusiasm for what it’s promoting as a marquee series.
“The show is great,” Tannenbaum said. “It’s worth a look.”
But it also serves as a kind of proof of concept for Roku’s integrated ad services, which Tannenbaum said the company also sells to “internal partners” like Netflix and Disney+. If competing streaming services, like what Roku did with the release of “Spiderwick,” could buy similar campaigns on Roku’s homepage and screensavers for their own series or movies.
Roku is pleased with the show’s performance, though it declined to say whether “Spiderwick” will get another season. (“We’re focused and proud of the success of Season 1,” a spokeswoman said.) But for Coleite, just the fact that people can finally see the show she’s been working on for the past four years is the most important victory.
“This is the show that won’t die,” he said with a laugh. “He will not bow to anyone’s cancellation. It manifests into existence and will survive.”