Story perspectives

Disney+ Secures Live-Action Casper Series, Spielberg Executive Producing

4/30/2026

Summary

Story summary

Disney+ (U.S.) won a five-way bidding war to produce a live-action Casper series.
Rob Letterman and Hilary Winston will write the series, with Letterman also directing.
Steven Spielberg returns as executive producer, joining DreamWorks Animation TV and Universal Studio Group’s UCP as co-producers.
The show, billed as a darker modern update using CGI for Casper, would be Universal Studio Group’s first Disney+ series if ordered.

History

Historical Context

In 1995 Universal Pictures and Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment launched the Casper, the first film with a fully CGI lead, on May 26 with a $55 million budget that grossed $290.3 million worldwide. Subsequent direct-to-video sequels and a series of rights transfers—Classic Media (2001), DreamWorks (2012), NBCUniversal (2016)—set the stage for today’s Disney+ bidding war, where Spielberg returns as executive producer alongside DreamWorks Animation TV and Universal Studio Group.

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Story summary

Disney+ (U.S.) won a five-way bidding war to produce a live-action Casper series.
Rob Letterman and Hilary Winston will write the series, with Letterman also directing.
Steven Spielberg returns as executive producer, joining DreamWorks Animation TV and Universal Studio Group’s UCP as co-producers.
The show, billed as a darker modern update using CGI for Casper, would be Universal Studio Group’s first Disney+ series if ordered.

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