If you grew up a fan of the series Are You Afraid of the Dark you're soon going to be able to introduce a whole new Midnight Society to your own kids. The three episode reboot of the classic spooky kids' show finally has a release date and casting news as well as plot details. Nickelodeon will be airing the reboot that just began filming in Vancouver with BenDavid Grabinski writing and Dean Israelite directing.
The Midnight Society, a group of storytelling teens who share spooky stories fireside has been cast, as have other members of the series including Sam Ashe Arnold from Best.Worst.Weekend.Ever., Miya Cech from Rim of the World, Tamara Smart from Artemis Fowl and The Worst Witch, Jeremy Taylor from It as well as Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, Lyliana Wray from Top Gun: Maverick and Black-ish, and Rafael Casal from Blindspotting, Deadline reports.
In this current reboot, the Midnight Society, consisting of Gavin (Arnold), Akiko (Cech), Louise (Smart), Graham (Taylor) and Rachel (Wray) sit around a campfire and tell scary stories, just like in the original series. In this current adaptation, the Midnight Society tells the story of The Carnival of Doom and watch as the story they tell eventually comes to life. Casal plays the Carnival of Doom's ringmaster, Mr. Tophat.
The original series that has since become a cult classic first aired on Nickelodeon from 1992 until 1996. It then began airing again from 1999 until 2000. Children's network YTV carried the series in Canada as well. The rebooted series was originally intended to air on Nickelodeon at the same time the big screen movie that is planned was to hit theaters, but there have since been changes to production and the movie is delayed.
The reboot was first announced back in February, delighting not only fans of the original series but those who are eager to watch something with a bit more bite to it than your typical children's programming.
Gary Dauberman, who was originally attached to the Are You Afraid of The Dark movie but has since left the project, thinks it's good for kids to watch things that are scary. "I think fear is healthy for kids. I don’t think we have to always sand down the edges of things and that’s something I really wanted to do with Are You Afraid of the Dark. I think it is scary and I think kids will be scared watching it at times, and also they’ll laugh at times. I think it’s got a great message. I think it’s got a great heart to it but it is still scary. I think that’s great. I think it’s going to open it up to a wider audience."
The three, one-hour episodes are currently slated to begin airing in mid-October on Nickelodeon.