Disney's New Fantasy Horror Series Earns Rare Rotten Tomatoes Score
Abdullah Al-Ghamdi joined Screen Rant in August 2019 and is now one of the leading contributors of the TV News team. Having written over 4000 news stories in that time , with his work cited in Buzzfeed and TV Insider, he's always bemoaning that there's too many shows and not enough time. You can contact him at: aalghamdi@hey.com.
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Disney's new horror series is ringing in spooky season exactly the right way.
In the streaming era, in what has become a bit of a tradition, Disney+ aims to celebrate Halloween in partnership with Hulu. This year is no different, as subscribers will be treated to a torrent of horror classics arriving on both shows. But for genre lovers who are looking for something a little more ongoing, there's the new season of AHS, bringing back favorites like Jessica Lange, Angela Bassett, and Kathy Bates.
There's also Coven Academy, a new fantasy horror series that has debuted to a rare 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The score is currently based on 7 reviews for the recently debuted drama, so the numbers may change once more critics add their assessments in the coming days and weeks. But as a positive sign, the Average of Rated Reviews (which can be viewed by clicking on the Tomatometer) currently sits at 7.90 out of 10. This indicates that the reactions so far trend in a firmly positive direction.
Created by Tim Federle, who served as executive producer on the High School Musical spinoff led by Olivia Rodrigo, Coven Academy follows three teenage witches and their warlock classmates attending an elite magical boarding school that's set in the haunted heart of New Orleans, with the official synopsis describing a world where “power serves as currency, secrets can be deadly, and attraction becomes a liability.”
The premise comes across in the premiere, which introduces viewers to Briar (played by Malina Pauli Weissman) after the New Yorker learns that she has special powers. She makes fast friends with two fellow witches, but her struggles to adjust to a new reality are made worse by the fact that she is seemingly singled out and hunted by a group of supernatural creatures.
Malachi Barton, Jordan Leftwich, Ora Duplass, Louis Thresher, Tiffani Thiessen, and Devon Sawa fill out the core cast, receiving praise in ScreenRant's review of Coven Academy by Rianna de Bono-Smith, who acknowledged that the show can be “charming” in its cheesiness. The review also highlights a fast pace that makes the new Disney+ and Hulu Original perfect for binge-watching.
Variety's Aramide Tinubu offers a similarly positive assessment, highlighting how the performances and bonds between the characters help to overcome some of the weak elements of the series. Those may indeed be the series' cheesy qualities and, at times, its imperfect balance of genres. Still, on the whole, it may hit with the target demographic and for others willing to see it through.
The first nine chapters of Coven Academy premiered October 1 on Freeform at 8 PM ET, with season 1 fully debuting on Disney+, Hulu, and Freeform on Demand the following day.
- Release Date
- October 1, 2026
- Network
- Freeform
- Directors
- Tim Federle
Cast
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Malina Weissman
Briar
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Malachi Barton
Jake
-
Jordan Leftwich
Sasha
-
Ora Duplass
Tegan
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.