The first Goosebumps movie starring Jack Black as the children’s horror author R.L. Stine was a pretty solid critical and box office success. It opened at number one, beating out much buzzier titles like The Martian, Bridge of Spies and Crimson Peak, proving that family-friendly horror movies that open in time for Halloween are a guarantee win for studios. Now a Goosebumps sequel is on the way with a Halloween-themed story, but Black is nowhere in sight.

While the 2015 movie followed a teen who accidentally unleashed the monsters of R.L. Stine’s spooky manuscripts, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween follows a new trio of kids. The new movie, from director Ari Sandel, stars ITs Jeremy Ray Taylor, Caleel Harris (Hulu’s Castle Rock) and Madison Iseman of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle as three teens who stumble upon Stine’s Halloween book and, once again, the creepy Slappy and a slew of evil CGI monsters of the author’s imagination are let loose to roam the streets. But where is Black’s Stine? What about the first movie’s younger cast?

Here’s the official synopsis:

Slappy is back to wreak more havoc this Halloween in a brand-new comedy adventure based on R.L. Stine’s 400-million-selling series of books.

While Black also voiced the creepy ventriloquist dummy in Rob Letterman’s first movie, Deadline reported out of CinemaCon that he wouldn’t be returning to voice the character in the sequel. (I guess he’s a little busy with that other haunted house movie.) Without Black, will the second Goosebumps be able to match the success of the first? We’ll find out when the R.L. Stine horror story hits theaters October 12.

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