All eight episodes of Goosebumps: The Vanishing made their debut on Disney+ last week, and fans hoping for some answers to that cliffhanger Season 1 ending were left in the lurch as the series took a drastic turn. Instead of picking up where the freshman season left off, Goosebumps completely switched its format into an anthology show, meaning each season focuses on a new story and a different crop of characters. Once more, Season 2 ended with a cliffhanger that saw Trey (Stony Blyden) coughing up an alien slug, and when it comes to all the burning questions fans have, executive producer Rob Letterman is in no hurry to provide answers.
Speaking with Us Weekly, Letterman touched on the Goosebumps: The Vanishing ending, and was asked whether Season 3 would provide any answers – either to what happens with Trey, or what happened after Kanduu’s spirit possessed Nathan at the end of Season 1. His response, sadly, wasn’t one we wanted to hear:

We don’t think that far into the future. We’re one day at a time process.

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That being said, Letterman revealed that there’s a valid reason as to why Goosebumps has thus far ended each season on a cliffhanger. Fans of R.L. Stine’s books will note that his stories end much the same way, with the main plotline coming to a close, but an ambiguous moment thrown in at the end to leave the reader wondering if things are really as they seem. Letterman and company took that same approach for the Disney+ series, hoping to stay true to the spirit of the novels.

“When we switched into an anthology, it really fit what Goosebumps is. So if you’re fan of the books, you know that R.L. Stine doesn’t write happily ever after at the end of the books. In fact, he goes out of his way not to do that. He leaves it with a cliffhanger or a twist.”

Why Did ‘Goosebumps’ Switch Formats?

With Season 1 of Goosebumps taking its cues from such books as Say Cheese and Die! and The Haunted Mask, Season 2 explored favorites like Monster Blood, Welcome to Camp Nightmare, and Stay Out of the Basement. Since the series was initially expected to keep telling one long, continuous story, its switch to an anthology show surprised many. As to why Letterman and company chose to go that route? He said he “wanted to tell something totally new and fresh.”

“Season 2 we wanted to swing the pendulum and do something different. But we also wanted fans of the first season to feel comfortable in the model of what the storytelling was. So that’s how we kept that structure of a mystery we have to unpack. We liked that framing device but we wanted to tell something totally new and fresh. It’s a nice balancing act for keeping the familiarity of the Goosebumps TV series going, while doing it as an anthology.”

It has yet to be announced if Goosebumps will be renewed for Season 3, so it’s unclear what the plans are going forward, or if we’ll ever get any answers to the many questions we still have. Honestly, we probably won’t, so fans should probably just accept that, much like Stine’s books, each season will always end on somewhat of a juicy cliffhanger. You can check out Goosebumps streaming now on Disney+.

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Release Date

October 13, 2023

Cast

David Schwimmer
, Jayden Bartels
, Francesca Noel
, Galilea La Salvia
, Elijah M. Cooper
, Ana Ortiz
, Zack Morris
, Justin Long
, Ana Yi Puig
, Miles McKenna
, Will Price
, Isa Briones
, Rachael Harris
, Rob Huebel

Seasons

2