NBC is looking to bring back one of the friendliest ghosts from coast to coast in a brand new live-action series. A new Casper series is underway at Peacock with the creator of Netflix's The Ghost Bride and writer for Hannibal and The Flash, Kai Yu Wu, tapped to give the show life. UCP and DreamWorks Animation are also co-producing the series which looks to take the innocent, charming little ghost in a darker direction.

Per the description, it's a coming-of-age horror adventure tale, reworking Casper's origins to explore what it means to be alive. When a new family arrives in the small town of Eternal Falls, Casper finds himself entangled in a mystery uncovering dark secrets that have been buried for over a hundred years. While it seems like it may be taking cues from the slightly darker live-action Casper from 1995, there's reportedly no connection between the two.

The character of Casper the Friendly Ghost has been around for close to eighty years, first appearing in short animated films in the 1940s from Famous Studios and later in comics after being acquired by Harvey Comics. Harvey pumped out regular issues of Casper comics, making the friendly ghost a pop culture icon over time with multiple television shows and films under his belt, including Matty's Funday Funnies, The New Casper Cartoon Show, Casper and the Angels, and The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper. From there, Casper slowly trickled into Universal's hands as Harvey Entertainment was bought up by Classic Media, which would eventually be acquired by DreamWorks in 2012, which itself is now under Universal's umbrella.

casper-movie
Image via Universal Pictures

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Casper has remained dormant for some time now, last appearing as a headliner on screen in the series Casper's Scare School, so it remains to be seen how a new series will get the classic character to resonate with a new audience. The last time Casper appeared in live-action, it was a groundbreaking moment for cinema. 1995's Casper saw the friendly ghost brought into live-action as the first fully CGI lead with Malachi Peterson voicing and Devon Sawa portraying his human form. Moreover, it made bank at the box office with a star-studded cast that featured Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman, Cathy Moriarty, and Eric Idle.

NBC's new Casper series will also rely on CGI to bring the ghost to life, and it'll have a talented creative at the helm to weave it all together. We'll see if it can match its live-action film predecessor in star power, but for now, this is a project to keep an eye on.