"Casper the Friendly Ghost" Live-Action Series in Works

A new live-action series about Casper the Friendly Ghost is underway at Peacock.

The streamer is developing a horror/adventure series that reimagines the origin of Casper in a coming-of-age story exploring what it means to be alive.

The series is set in high school and follows Casper getting entangled in a mystery uncovering dark secrets that have been buried for over 100 years after a new family arrives in the small town of Eternal Falls.

It is produced by UCP, a pision of Universal Studio Group, and DreamWorks Animation.

"Casper" originated as a translucent ghost featured in a number of animated movies by Famous Studios released between 1945 and 1959. That is when the character was acquired by Harvey Comics, which has been publishing Casper comics since 1952.

The character has headlined a slew of comic books, five animated television series, Matty’s Funday Funnies, The New Casper Cartoon Show, Casper and the Angels, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, Casper’s Scare School, and Universal Pictures’ 1995 live-action feature Casper.

In 2001, Harvey Entertainment was acquired by Classic Media. In 2012, Classic Media was bought by DreamWorks Animation, which in turn was acquired by Universal Pictures parent NBCUniversal in 2016.

As was the case in the 1995 movie, which starred Malachi Pearson, who voiced the title character, Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman, the new live-action Casper series is expected to feature CGI effects.