‘Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble’ is due to begin shooting within months.
The upcoming horror crossover - which is a sequel to ‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II’ - will feature twisted versions of childhood characters, including Winnie-the-Pooh, Bambi, Pinocchio and Peter Pan, is scheduled to enter production in March 2025 as it marches towards its Halloween release date.
The slasher - which is being directed Twisted Childhood Universe creator Rhys Frake-Waterfield - is reportedly due to follow Christopher Robin (Scott Chambers) and Wendy Darling (Megan Placito) as they try to escape Winnie-the-Pooh and his bloodthirsty friends.
It has also be revealed that Lewis Santer and Martin Portlock are expected to reprise their respective roles of Tigger and Peter Pan.
As well as directing, Frake-Waterfield co-wrote ‘Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble’ with Chambers, and will producer through Jagged Edge Productions, while Stuart Alson and Nicole Holland serve as executive producers for ITN Studios.
Before ‘Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble’ lands in cinemas on 31 October 2025, fans of the horror franchise will be able to see ‘Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare’ and ‘Bambi: The Reckoning’, which are both slated to release earlier in the year.
The Twisted Childhood Universe - which was created by Frake-Waterfield after A.A. Milne’s work went into the public domain in 2022 - was kick-started by ‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’ in 2023, which followed Pooh and Piglet as they hunt down Alice (Amber Doig-Thorne) and her friends.
At the time of the film’s launch, Doig-Thorne, 30, teased that she hoped ‘Bloody and Honey’ would “ruin people’s childhoods”.
She told BANG Showbiz: “I read the script, loved it, I was obsessed with Winne-the-Pooh as a child so I was like, ‘Let’s ruin people’s childhoods, why not?’
“Part of me was like, 'Oh my god, they’re ruining Pooh,’ but another part of me was like, ‘I’m totally here for this, so that’s fine.’”
On a budget of $100,000, ‘Blood and Honey’ brought in $7.7 million at the global box office, with its sequel a year later earning $7.6 million during its theatrical run in March 2024.
