Goosebumps 2 is officially called Slappy Halloween, according to author R.L. Stine who also revealed that the movie has started filming. Fans have been waiting since 2015 for any news about the sequel, and slowly, reports have been trickling in, with previous reports calling the movie Slappy's Revenge and even Horrorland, over the summer of 2017. The first movie starred Jack Black and was a huge success upon its release in October of 2015, earning over $150 million off of an initial budget of $58 million. Here's what Stine had to say on social media.

"Happy to announce that filming has begun on the Goosebumps movie sequel. Title: Slappy Halloween. Meanwhile, the new Goosebumps SlappyWorld book has just been published."

Slappy the Dummy is making his return for Goosebumps 2, but it's still not clear if Jack Black will return to voice the character at this time. It had been previously reported that the sequel will feature a brand-new cast. Jack Black voiced Slappy the Dummy and two versions of the script have been floated, one that will see the return of Jack Black and another that has him cut out completely. Slappy Halloween has had many false starts since first being announced in September of 2015.

Even though production has begun on Goosebumps 2, there is still a lot that is not clear about the project at this time. According to the Wikipedia page for the movie, Jack Black is confirmed to reprise his role as R.L. Stine and Slappy the Dummy, but that is the only place where it is confirmed that he's taking part in the project. It was announced late last year that the sequel's release date has been moved up from September to October 12th, 2018 presumably to be closer to a Halloween release date.

It was originally thought that Slappy Halloween was going to be titled Slappy's Revenge after the book, but the new release date and title make a lot more sense now. The Slappy's Revenge book basically features Slappy the Dummy explaining how he exacts his revenge and shares tips, but now it looks like the sequel will be crafted from an original story, which should be exciting for Goosebumps fans who have been waiting 3 years for production to finally start. The story will reportedly feature Nikola Tesla helping Slappy the Dummy bring forth the apocalypse, but nothing has been officially confirmed at this time.

New cast members for Goosebumps 2 include Madison Iseman, Ben O'Brien, Caleel Harris and Jeremy Ray Taylor. Comedy veterans Ken Jeong, Chris Parnell, and Wendi McLendon-Covey have also joined the cast. Though there's still a lot being kept under wraps about the sequel, it's good to see the official title and production has begun, which points to some photos from the set coming our way very soon, to try and figure out the Jack Black mystery, along with filling in the rest of the story. For now, we'll have to wait and see. The production start announcement, from R.L. Stine's Twitter account, has since been deleted for unknown reasons. It should be noted that there was also a viral Goosebumps card that went out during the original movie's release that contained the title Slappy Halloween. Perhaps R.L. jumped the gun on this?