R.L. Stine's Afraid of Clowns: Tubi Movie Cast & 2027 Release

Tubi is expanding its R.L. Stine horror lineup with a new original movie, R.L. Stine’s Afraid of Clowns, scheduled for 2027, according to the announcement reported by BroadwayWorld and Bloody Disgusting.

The project was announced on October 1, 2026. It stars Frankie Honey, Ava Ferrer, Azriel Dalman, Joe Moore and Jimbo, and it is written and directed by Jem Garrard.

The setup is deliberately simple and ominous: a mysterious clown troupe arrives in the town of Redhaven. Frankie begins to suspect the visitors are connected to a child who vanished years earlier — and fears her younger brother could be next.

That is the announced premise. The announcement coverage does not supply a precise release date, trailer or fuller explanation of the film’s mythology.

Hero portrait: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0. Photographed in Phoenix in 2019; this is a contextual portrait, not promotional artwork for the film. Image resized and optimized.

What the Afraid of Clowns announcement says

The October 1 announcement, reproduced in BroadwayWorld’s coverage, establishes the basic production details:

R.L. Stine’s Afraid of Clowns is a Tubi original planned for 2027.
Jem Garrard is writing and directing.
The announced cast includes Frankie Honey, Ava Ferrer, Azriel Dalman, Joe Moore and Jimbo.
Front Street Pictures is producing.
The story is set in Redhaven.
Its central threat is Ringmaster Rollo and a mysterious clown troupe.
Frankie’s investigation is tied to the disappearance of a child several years earlier.
Her younger brother may become the troupe’s next target.

The announcement does not yet identify every actor’s character, and it does not provide a day or month for the 2027 premiere.

That distinction matters because early horror announcements often generate assumptions around casting and plot before a studio has actually supplied those details.

The story returns to Redhaven — but a shared universe has not been confirmed

The name Redhaven is significant.

Tubi already uses Redhaven as the setting for its R.L. Stine Pumpkinhead films. The streamer’s own material for R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2 describes the sequel as taking place in Redhaven, and the Afraid of Clowns announcement uses the same town name.

That is a real connection at the level of setting.

It is not yet enough to say that Tubi has officially announced a connected R.L. Stine cinematic universe or that Afraid of Clowns directly continues the Pumpkinhead story.

The announcement materials reviewed for this article do not explain whether Redhaven is intended as a shared continuity, a recurring fictional location or simply a reused setting within Tubi’s growing R.L. Stine collection.

Until Tubi says more, the careful description is this: both projects are set in a town called Redhaven, but the exact relationship between them remains unconfirmed.

Jem Garrard is returning behind the camera

Garrard’s involvement gives the project a stronger connection to Tubi’s existing Stine adaptations than the shared town name alone.

Garrard also directed Tubi’s R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead and Pumpkinhead 2. The new film therefore continues an established creative partnership between the filmmaker, Tubi and Stine-branded horror.

That still does not tell us whether Afraid of Clowns shares characters, events or rules with those films.

It does show that Tubi is building a recognizable line of original horror projects around Stine’s name rather than releasing a single isolated adaptation.

1949 black-and-white portrait of a Barnum & Bailey Circus clown with a fly resting on his nose

Contextual historical image: a Barnum & Bailey Circus clown photographed in 1949. This is not an image from Afraid of Clowns. Source: Archivio Storico del Touring Club Italiano via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Image resized and optimized.

What the announcement does not tell us

Several important details remain open.

The announcement coverage reviewed for this article does not provide:

an exact 2027 premiere date;
an official trailer;
which roles belong to each announced cast member;
whether Ringmaster Rollo is supernatural, human or something else;
how the missing child case connects to the present-day story beyond the synopsis;
whether Redhaven creates direct continuity with the Pumpkinhead films;
runtime or rating.

Those gaps are not problems. They simply define where verified information stops.

The phrase “R.L. Stine’s” also should not be read as proof that the movie adapts an already published Stine novel or short story of the same title. The current announcement presents it as part of Tubi’s Stine horror collection, but it does not identify a source book called Afraid of Clowns.

Why the Redhaven detail is worth watching

The most interesting long-term question is not whether the movie contains scary clowns; the title and synopsis have already settled that.

It is whether Redhaven is becoming Tubi’s recurring setting for its R.L. Stine originals.

If future announcements connect characters, events or fictional history between Pumpkinhead, Pumpkinhead 2 and Afraid of Clowns, that would give the setting a larger role than a repeated town name.

For now, Morbid Index is treating that possibility as exactly what it is: a question created by two confirmed uses of the same setting, not an established shared-universe fact.

When will Afraid of Clowns be released?

The announced release window is 2027.

No exact date appears in the announcement coverage reviewed for this article.

The next meaningful update should come when Tubi publishes a specific premiere date, an official trailer, character details or clarification about the relationship between Redhaven’s different R.L. Stine stories.

Until then, the confirmed picture is straightforward: R.L. Stine’s Afraid of Clowns is a new Tubi horror movie written and directed by Jem Garrard, set in Redhaven and scheduled for 2027, with Ringmaster Rollo and a mysterious clown troupe at the center of the story.

R.L. Stine’s Afraid of Clowns Is Coming to Tubi in 2027