Disney has greenlit new multi-cam comedy series Pretty Freekin Scary from LA-based CakeStart Entertainment and Cloudco Entertainment in the US.

Targeting kids ages six to 14 and their families, the 20 x 30-minute series follows along with a 14-year-old girl who dies but is allowed to return home as a regular girl with two guardians from the underworld. She has to adapt to her new life while attending middle school—which is way more challenging than the underworld. Already in production, Pretty Freekin Scary is based on a 2007/2008 book series of the same name by Chris Flesh. The show is set to premiere in summer 2023 on Disney Channel and Disney+.

Jason Hauser (Raven’s Home) created the series for TV, and Jessica Kaminsky will bring it to life as an executive producer and showrunner, along with CakeStart EPs Kory Lunsford, Jason Netter, Ed Galton, Cloudco’s Sean Gorman, Ian Lambur and Ryan Wiesbrock and independent EP Loris Kramer Lunsford.

CakeStart is headed by Lunsford, who joined in 2021 after nearly 20 years at Disney. The prodco is a joint-venture between UK distributor CAKE and Kickstart Entertainment in LA.

This greenlight comes on the heels of Disney ordering The Slumber Party, a live-action film adaptation of Jen Malone’s 2016 teen novel The Sleepover, from Imagine Kids+Family. It’s about a group of teenage girls who don’t remember what happened the night before at their craziest slumber party ever.

In other Disney news, Ryan Reynolds has teamed up with Qui Nguyen (the writer and co-director of Disney’s upcoming animated feature Strange World) to turn the Society of Explorers and Adventurers theme park attraction into a live-action film where Disney theme parks and their characters come to life. The movie will also introduce new characters.

Nguyen is on board as the screenwriter, and Reynolds’ Maximum Effort studio will produce the film.

The Society franchise already has an upcoming  Disney+ series of the same name in the works. Like the movie, it’s set in the Magic Kingdom Universe and features characters from Disney parks and classic movies coming to life. This project is being developed by exec producer and writer Ron Moore (For All Mankind).

Pictured are two of the Pretty Freekin Scary actors: Eliana Su’a (credit: Cathryn Farnsworth) and Kyan Samuels (credit: Jamaal Murray).