Disney+’s latest Japanese original is supernatural thriller series Night Tales Club.
A teaser trailer has dropped for the show, which follows a successful businessman, Hojo, obsessed with the inexplicable who turns his attention to solving life’s biggest mysteries, unleashing all manner of bizarre horrors.
Six-part series will launch in January 2027 and is based on a short horror story collection from Ichi Sawamura. Each episode will see Hojo sharing a different mysterious story. He is convinced that ghost stories, monsters and other supernatural anomalies are “bugs” in an underlying conspiracy, so begins inviting people to share their experiences and evidence at his Night Tales Club in exchange for 20 million yen.
Takayuki Yamada has been cast as Hojo, the storyteller, with each episode directed by a different director, including Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure), Takashi Shimizu (Ju-On), Shinzo Katayama (Gannibal), Yukiko Sode (Aristocrats), Yuichiro Sakashita (I Can’t Cry With Your Face) and Yosuke Nakamura (Higuma!!), with Kenji Nakajima (The Naked Director) directing the Hojo sequences.
The series is produced by Yusuke Wakabayashi and Teruhisa Yamamoto and adapted for the screen by the original writer, Sawamura, who said: “As the original author of these stories, I feel an enormous sense of surprise and joy that they will soon be available on screen to scare audiences around the world.”
Disney+ has to date launched Japanese originals such as Gannibal, about a police officer who discovers a horrifying secret in his sleepy rural village, and Land of Tanabata, about a university student with a seemingly useless ability who investigates a murder, along with lighter fare such as cross-cultural romcom Merry Berry Love and comedic variety show The One Shot.
The news comes a day after Carol Choi replaced the retiring Luke Kang as President of The Walt Disney Company APAC.