The Problem With Fablehaven's spring cameras

Cameron Sawyer told a FanX audience in Salt Lake City on Saturday that Fablehaven casting is in the final stages for Kendra, Seth, Grandma, Grandpa, and Muriel, and that he hopes filming starts this spring, Deseret News reported.

Brandon Mull sat beside him. The novelist who sold more than 3.5 million copies of the preserve series called himself “cautiously optimistic” after nearly twenty years of options that never became a movie. Haven Films is making the picture with Mull as a consultant. Angel is producing and distributing for a 2027 theatrical window.

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Director Cameron Sawyer gestures while speaking beside author Brandon Mull at a FanX panel table in Salt Lake City

Final stages, still no names

That is the problem with a spring shoot that still has no public cast. Sawyer said the kids and the grandparents are in the last pass. Mull said he has seen secondary auditions that improved on what he wrote. He also said recognizable actors are in play and that he will not name anyone until contracts are signed. Sawyer teased talks with an “American icon” and “sex symbol of the 1980s” for Grandpa, agents negotiating, no announcement.

The May YouTube diary already had 5,435 open auditions and 253 callbacks. Angel’s March note pointed at late-summer 2026 cameras. Late summer is over. FanX moved the public clock to spring without putting a Friday or a face on the poster.

Sawyer still wants one film per book, five novels, then the spin-offs if the first holds. He told the room practical effects will lead, with other tools only if they look better. Mull praised a family-friendly script. None of that is a start date. The open question is whether spring 2027 cameras arrive with Kendra and Seth named, or whether Fablehaven’s next public update is another panel that still cannot say who drinks the milk.

The beatOn the upcoming board

Fablehaven is a title this desk is watching. Windows, studios, and the rest of the slate live on Upcoming.

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