At Peacock, Casper the Friendly Ghost is being revived as a live-action series. Casper is being developed as a “horror-adventure” series by the NBC Universal streaming service, according to Deadline, reworking the cartoon ghost’s origin as a “coming-of-age drama that examines what it means to be alive.” The series is supposed to be similar in tone to Riverdale, The CW’s dark adolescent drama adaptation of the original Archie comic books, and is written and executive produced by Kai Yu Wu (The Ghost Bride, The CW’s The Flash).According to Deadline, the Casper reboot is set in high school and follows the affable ghost as he unravels deadly truths that have been buried for over 100 years when a new family comes in the little town of Eternal Falls.
Casper debuted in the 1995 theatrical live-action/animated film with Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman, after starring in Famous Studios’ Noveltoon series throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Before the Harvey Comics character returned in two computer-animated straight-to-video original movies, Casper’s Haunted Christmas in 2000 and Casper’s Scare School in 2006, two live-action/animated hybrid straight-to-video sequels followed: 1997’s Casper: A Spirited Beginning and 1998’s Hilary Duff-starring Casper Meets Wendy. In 2009, a CG-animated Canadian children’s series of the same name was released.
The relaunched Casper will join the Saved by the Bell revival, the dramatic Fresh Prince remake Bel-Air, the Tiger King-inspired miniseries Joe vs. Carole, and DreamWorks’ animation Madagascar: A Little Wild, Dragons: The Nine Realms, and Trolls: TrollsTopia on Peacock Original programming.Casper began as an endearing translucent ghost in a series of Famous Studios animated films released between 1945 and 1959.
Harvey Comics, which had been publishing Casper comics since 1952, bought the character at that time. Since then, Casper has appeared in a slew of comic books, five animated television series, including Matty’s Funday Funnies, The New Casper Cartoon Show, Casper and the Angels, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, and Casper’s Scare School, as well as the 1995 live-action feature Casper from Universal Pictures. Classic Media purchased Harvey Entertainment in 2001. Classic Media was purchased by DreamWorks Animation in 2012, which was then bought by Universal Pictures parent NBCUniversal in 2016.
CGI effects are set to be used in the new live-action Casper series, just as they were in the 1995 film starring Malachi Pearson, who voiced the main character, Christina Ricci, and Bill Pullman.Wu is an executive producer on Freeform’s drama AZNBBGRL, which was recently picked up for a pilot. She previously worked as a co-executive producer on the upcoming Disney+ series American Born Chinese and as a developer/head writer on another supernatural series, Netflix’s The Ghost Bride. The CW’s The Flash and NBC’s Hannibal are among his other writing credits. Underground and UTA represent Wu.