In 2022, Variety revealed that NBCUniversal was rebooting Casper the Friendly Ghost with a new live-action series for Peacock, reimagining the character’s origin story under the direction of Kai Yu Wu. Unfortunately, we haven’t heard much about the show since then. That said, we have a few interesting ideas about how the upcoming Casper The Friendly Ghost reboot could become the next Riverdale.
Riverdale’s Success
Who could have predicted a show like Riverdale would become such a massive mainstream success? The dark take on Archie and his friends sounded like the kind of parody you found in the depths of YouTube — and yet, against all odds, this gloomy show captured the hearts and minds of people who hadn’t even read an Archie comic before.
The combination of mystery, intrigue, murders, the occult, and the occasional time travel turned Riverdale into a perfectly bingeable oddity. The show dug deep into the lore of Riverdale, offering us a glimpse into a dysfunctional society where mysteries abound and everyone dresses like it’s 1955.
Riverdale succeeded in taking something as inoffensive as Archie and turning it into a gripping murder mystery. So what if there was a show like that for another children’s character, one that already deals with death and possible murders on a daily basis? That’s right — it’s time for Casper the Friendly Ghost to finally get its own dark revival show.
Dark Meets Darker
For a children’s character, Casper’s backstory is surprisingly depressing. Casper was a kid who passed away from pneumonia when he was just 12, all because he wanted to play in the snow. That alone puts Casper in a league of its own compared to Archie: the kids from Riverdale, in the comics, only met serious storylines well into their publication history. In the beginning, Archie’s comics were all about humour and romance — there were never kids dying of pneumonia.
Casper’s dark origins give the character a chance to create a compelling and mature narrative, the kind that Riverdale viewers crave after the show’s divisive ending. Add to that the fact that Casper knows a good number of different ghosts and creatures of the night and you got yourself the recipe for a chilling show about ghosts, ghouls, and everything in between.
The Friendly And Conflicted Ghost
While all the shows and films with Casper show him as a friendly and jolly apparition, the fact of the matter is that the ghost has some unfinished business left on Earth. As lovable as he appears, there’s a reason why Casper hasn’t been able to cross to the other side. A more mature series could deal with how Casper deals with his own death and his continued permanence in the world of the living. I know, it sounds like some heavy stuff, but that aspect of “immortality” is what makes his character so interesting from a mature narrative perspective.
Part of Casper’s tragedy as a character is the fact that the spirit has to deal with the living on almost a daily basis, while keeping a close connection to his connections in the afterlife. Much like Riverdale managed to turn Archie and his friends into a group of unlikely sleuths, Casper could use his connections with those who passed aways as a tool to solve mysteries. Kind of like a Ghost Whisperer situation. With shows like Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Riverdale redefining the nature of children’s cartoon characters, someone like Casper has a chance to find a new audience with the fans who watched the character growing up, and who might now be more than interested in seeing Casper’s ghostly adventures under a more mature light.
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Tell us, do you want a Casper The Friendly Ghost reboot in the style of Riverdale?
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An afterlife therapist and his daughter meet a friendly young ghost when they move into a crumbling mansion in order to rid the premises of wicked spirits. |
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| Studio: Amblin Entertainment, The Harvey Entertainment Company, Universal Pictures |
| Running Time: 101 minutes |
| Release Date: May 26, 1995 |
| Cast: Bill Pullman, Christina Ricci, Cathy Moriarty, Eric Idle, Chauncey Leopardi, Fred Rogers, Malachi Pearson, Brad Garrett |
| Director: Brad Silberling |
| Writers: Joseph Oriolo, Sherri Stoner, Deanna Oliver |
| Genre: Supernatural, Fantasy, Comedy, Family |
| Box Office: $288 million |
