Disney+ Sets Six-Part Horror Anthology Night Tales Club For January 2027
The series puts a Japanese genre anthology into Disney+'s international originals pipeline, which the company says it plans to roughly triple from about 60 to 70 shows a year over the next three years.
Key Facts
- Night Tales Club is a six-episode supernatural anthology series that premieres on Disney+ in January 2027.
- Takayuki Yamada plays Hojo, a wealthy entrepreneur who pays 20 million yen, roughly $130,000, in gold for evidence of supernatural phenomena.
- Ichi Sawamura wrote the episode scripts based on his own short horror story collection.
- Episodes are directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Takashi Shimizu, Shinzo Katayama, Yukiko Sode, Yuichiro Sakashita and Yosuke Nakamura.
- Kenji Nakajima directs the framing sequences featuring Takayuki Yamada, and Yusuke Wakabayashi and Teruhisa Yamamoto produce.
Reporting from 2 sources: The Hollywood Reporter Japan, Deadline Japan.
Disney+ announced Night Tales Club on Wednesday, a six-episode supernatural mystery anthology that premieres in January 2027 and stars Takayuki Yamada as Hojo, a wealthy entrepreneur who treats ghosts, monsters and curses as bugs in a larger conspiracy. Hojo founds the club of the title and pays people 20 million yen, roughly $130,000, in gold to bring him accounts of the inexplicable. Each episode dramatizes a different account. Ichi Sawamura adapted the scripts from his own short horror collection, and six directors handle the episodes: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Takashi Shimizu, Shinzo Katayama, Yukiko Sode, Yuichiro Sakashita and Yosuke Nakamura. Kenji Nakajima directs the framing sequences with Yamada. Yusuke Wakabayashi and Teruhisa Yamamoto produce. First-look images and a teaser trailer went out with the announcement. Sawamura said he felt surprise and joy that the stories would reach audiences worldwide.
The directing roster spans distinct corners of Japanese genre work: Kurosawa, whose credits include Cure and Wife of a Spy; Shimizu, of Ju-on; Katayama, who directed the Disney+ series Gannibal; Sode, of All the Lovers in the Night; Sakashita, of I Can't Cry With Your Face; and Nakamura, of Higuma!!. The two outlets describing the project list Sode's credits differently, and Sakashita and Nakamura are named in each without overlap in their filmographies.
The announcement lands against Disney's stated plan to increase international original output. The streamer's earlier Japanese live-action titles include the folk-horror thriller Gannibal, which returned for a second season in 2025, and the supernatural mystery Land of Tanabata. Upcoming Japanese and cross-cultural titles include the romantic comedy Merry Berry Love and the variety show The One Shot. In April, Disney signed a multi-year development deal with TBS-owned production company The Seven for more Japanese live-action originals. The Night Tales Club news also follows a change at the top of Disney's Asia-Pacific operation, with Carol Choi succeeding the retiring Luke Kang as president.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.