“I think the overall, overarching moral message is different. It’s timely and nuanced. It’s got a new, refreshing twist, so to speak,” Jack Dylan Grazer, who plays Thumbletack on the Roku series, tells TooFab.
Nearly two decades after fans were introduced to The Spiderwick Chronicles, a new magic-chasing family is re-imagining its story.
Based on a series of books by by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, The Spiderwick Chronicles tells the story of the Grace family, who in this adaptation, moves from Brooklyn, New York, to their ancestral home in Henson, Michigan — the Spiderwick Estate. Shortly after Helen (Joy Bryant) makes the move with her 15-year-old fraternal twin boys, Jared (Lyon Daniels) and Simon (Noah Cottrell), and her older daughter, Mallory (Mychala Lee), Jared discovers a boggart and realizes that magical creatures are real. The only one to believe him is his great-aunt Lucinda (Charlayne Woodard) who implores Jared to find the pages of her father’s field guide to magical creatures and protect them from the murderous Ogre, Mulgarath (Christian Slater).
While the initial premise is the same, the television adaptation of the books — originally turned into a feature film in 2008 — puts a modern twist on the fantastical series, one a new generation can gleefully dive into.
TooFab spoke to Lyon Daniels, Noah Cottrell, Mychala Lee, Jack Dylan Grazer and Alyvia Alyn Lind, who shared what sets the show apart from the cult classic film.
“Spiderwick Chronicles [is] a tune for the modern audience. And we touch on topics that are relevant to today’s generation, with teenagers, my age and dealing with mental health, which is very prevalent today, and we touch on them respectfully,” Daniels explained. And there’s just a wide array of themes with the family drama, mental health, and the divide that the twins have. And it’s beautiful.”
That’s a notion Glazer seconded as well, telling TooFab that everything about this adaptation of the beloved book series is “new.”
“I mean, the family, it’s a new family — technically, it’s a new family, new actors,
new characters — and there’s also a new character played by Alyvia Lynd, named Calliope, who’s eccentrically incredible and has a lot to say there, but I’ll keep it sparse because I don’t want to give away any spoilers. She ends up being kind of a bit of a monster,” Lyon, who plays magical creature, Thimbletack, shared.
He continued, “It’s just awesome. I got to bring a new sort of light to Thimbletack that was not seen in the film. He’s young. He’s a teenager in this one, and the problems are different. I think the overall, overarching moral message is different. It’s timely and nuanced. It’s got a new, refreshing twist, so to speak.”
Having eight episodes to play around as opposed to the constraints often present in say a two-hour film, also allowed this new cast to fully flesh out the story found in the books.
“I think that having the whole eight episodes to really dive into the characters and explore them, just lets us have so much more fun with our characters and really lets them have an arc over time. It’s a lot easier to have an arc in an eight-episode-long series than it is in, like, a two-hour movie. So, it’s really fun to get to dive into the Grace twins and the whole Grace family and see them as real people,” Lynd explained.
She continued, “And it’s really a really nice coming of age story in a lot of ways, where it’s like watching these kids grow up and go through all these issues that are ogres and lore and goblins chasing them, but also just getting to see them grow up and go through real teenager issues. So, it’s a really nice contrast that we get to explore a lot more in the show.”
Diehard fans of the book will be happy with this more fleshed-out version too, with Cottrell telling TooFab, viewers will “definitely” respect it.
“They’re going to enjoy it because it pays homage to the books, and it takes a lot of inspiration. It’s just put into this modern version,” he explained.
Lyon added, “I think Aaron Clay, the showrunner and the writer, respected the original books and added to the world so beautifully and integrated new characters, new themes, and allowed us to flesh out these awesome characters and all their complexities. I think the fans will pick up on that, and hopefully, they will enjoy those changes.”
See all the magic unfold on The Spiderwick Chronicles, premiering today on Roku.
