'Fear Street' Trilogy Cast Adds 'Stranger Things' Star Sadie Sink
Sadie Sink is jumping out of one spooky franchise and into another. The Stranger Things actress has joined the cast of the Fear Street trilogy, adapted from R.L. Stine's book series. Leigh Janiak, director of indie horror film Honeymoon, is set to helm all three entries in the trilogy. Unlike the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine, the Fear Street books were geared towards an older, teen audience – and the films likely will be as well.Deadline broke the news about Sadie Sink joining the Fear Street trilogy cast, but there no details about her character...yet. Sink joins previously announced cast members Kiana Madeira, Olivia Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., Ashley Zukerman, Fred Hechinger, Julia Rehwald, and Jeremy Ford, who will presumably appear in all three of the films being directed by Liegh Janiak.
The Fear Street trilogy has gone through fits and starts on its way to the screen. Recently, it was announced that Janiak was going to direct parts 1 and 3 of the trilogy, with Alex Ross Perry directing part 2. Now, Perry is out, and Janiak will direct all three films. The filmmaker wrote the script for the first movie, and oversaw a writers' room for the entire trilogy. Stranger Things writer Kate Trefry was also involved.
In February, word broke that the trilogy would follow "gay teenagers trying to navigate their rocky relationship when they're targeted by the crazy horrors of their small town, Shadyside. Each actress will be playing two different characters — one in the mid-'90s, and one in the 1600s, when gay women faced even greater adversity and repercussions — and they're both slated to appear in all three films." The Deadline news doesn't mention this storyline at all, so it's not clear if it's still being used, or if it was just a rumor.
R.L. Stine launched his Fear Street series in 1989. The books are set in the city of Shadyside, following teenagers who are usually much older than the characters in Stine's Goosebumps books. The stories in the books deal with both the paranormal, as well as murder mysteries involving human antagonists. Unlike Goosebumps, which skewed towards preteen readers, the Fear Street books were darker and more violent, containing the type of blood and gore that would never pop-up in a Goosebumps book.
The original plan for the Fear Street trilogy was to shoot all three films back-to-back, and then release them back-to-back one month after another. This appears to still be the case. The first film is expected to arrive in June 2020.