The new triclops iPhone and the Jason Momoa series See got the headlines before this, but they weren’t the only things Apple announced today. As reported by Deadline, Apple also announced a “reimagined” version of the ‘90s kids mystery show Ghostwriter, but based on the premise of the show, they’re actually leaning much harder on the “reimagined” thing than the average nostalgia-baiting revival. For anyone who wasn’t a ‘90s kid or who needs a refresher, the original Ghostwriter was about a group of kids in Brooklyn who solved mysteries with the help of an invisible spirit called Ghostwriter that could only communicate with written text—hence the name Ghostwriter.
The Apple TV+ version, meanwhile, sounds like a completely different show that is only connected to the original by its use of the same pun in the title. According to the Deadline story, the eponymous Ghostwriter this time around is a spirit that haunts a bookstore and uses its ghostly powers to transport literary characters into the real world, with a group of kids teaming up to try and figure out what the ghost’s “unfinished business” is through the use of “secret messages only they can see.” This version comes from The Dangerous Book For Boys’ Luke Matheny, and in addition to fictional characters from classic books, it will also feature “new works commissioned from popular authors like DJ Machale and Kwame Alexander”—which is strange.
So, to summarize, it’s less about a ghost that is writing and more about characters from books (some of which were created specifically for the show) coming to life. Again, this show is called Ghostwriter, and it’s meant to cash in on the fondness that people have for the original show. Anyway, it’ll be available at launch on Apple TV+, which is November 1.