House of Anubis
House of Anubis is a mystery television series developed for Nickelodeon based on the Belgian–Dutch television series Het Huis Anubis. The series was created by Hans Bourlon and Gert Verhulst and premiered on Nickelodeon on 1 January 2011 in the United States and on 25 February 2011 in the United Kingdom. The series is the first series from the network to be filmed outside the United States and the first telenovela-format series for the network. The show aired from 1 January 2011 to 17 June 2013.
Plot
Anubis House is a residence at an English boarding school dating from the early 1900s, and currently serving as a home for nine kids under the watch of the boarding school's strict caretaker, Victor Rodenmaar Jr. As an American girl named Nina Martin moves into Anubis House, another resident, Joy Mercer, suddenly disappears without a warning and the school staff eliminates all traces of Joy's existence. Joy's best friend, Patricia Williamson, is dismayed to learn this and accuses Nina of being involved with her disappearance. Forced to spend a night in the attic, Nina makes a bizarre discovery: the recorded diary of a young girl whom she met earlier as an old woman, Sarah Frobisher-Smythe, who had lived in the house long ago. On the tapes, it is revealed the house has a secret history, a mystery that nobody knows anything about. Sarah has given Nina an Eye of Horus-shaped necklace with mysterious powers revealed to Nina when she decides to investigate the house's mystery, alongside her new friend Fabian Rutter and new roommate Amber Millington. They form a secret group called "Sibuna" whose popularity expands to include Patricia, once she makes peace with Nina after learning that Joy's disappearance is connected to the house, and Alfie Lewis, another classmate and prankster. Eventually, Jerome Clarke joins in the mystery as well. Mara Jaffray, Mick Campbell, and Trudy Rehmann, the house mother, are oblivious to the mystery. Sibuna collects all seven puzzle pieces hidden within the house and discovers that the pieces put together make the Cup of Ankh. However, this can only be performed by the chosen one. Everyone believes that Joy is indeed the chosen one as she was born on the seventh of July at seven o' clock. However, they discover that the chosen one was born at seven AM, which was when Nina was born and makes her the chosen one instead of Joy, who was born at seven PM. Nina must make the cup before Victor and the teachers or Rufus Zeno get their hands on it.In the second season, Senkhara from ancient Egypt curses Nina with the Mark of Anubis – with the instructions that she must find the Mask of Anubis or she will die. Along their journey, Sibuna discover a chamber of tunnels underneath the house that contain a series of puzzling and dangerous tasks to unlock new parts of the tunnels and lead to the mask. However, Senkhara isn't happy with how long it is taking Nina. As a warning, she punishes Alfie, Amber, Fabian and Patricia with the Mark of Anubis also. Alongside the group, Victor is also searching for the mask as he believes that it holds the missing ingredient for the elixir of life – tears of gold. To obtain the Book of Isis that contains the recipe for the elixir, Victor instructs Mr Sweet to gain an Egyptian Exhibition. Jerome locates his father in prison, who tells him that in order to reverse his bad luck, Jerome must find the Frobisher Gem and put it into the Frobisher shield after he stole it as a child. New American pupil Eddie becomes rivals with Patricia, even though they are just hiding the fact that they are attracted to each other. Victor teams up with Anubis House's new housemother, Vera, who 'helps' him with locating the mask. Unbeknown to Victor, Vera is in fact working with Rufus Zeno. It is a race against each other as Sibuna and Victor try to outwit one another on the quest for the Mask of Anubis that will lead to eternal life.
In the third season, a new teacher, Miss Denby, comes to the school and seems to hang out with Victor and Mr. Sweet often. New American student K.T. Rush comes to the school. Eddie has a vision of K.T.'s dying grandfather giving her a key and telling her to go to Anubis House. Eddie and K.T. do some snooping around the house while Fabian tries to decipher a series of codes mistakenly given to Amber. When Amber leaves for fashion school, Sibuna is revived with Eddie as a leader and Fabian, K.T., Patricia and Alfie as members. They find out that the adults are trying to reawaken a sleeping Robert Frobisher-Smythe, with Denby being the "Keeper" , Victor being the "Enabler", and Mr. Sweet being the "Seeker". The Sibunas discover that Miss Harriet Denby's name is actually Caroline. Her sister is actually Harriet – and the original Keeper. However, she is locked in a mental hospital because of her sister. It turns out that K.T. is the great-granddaughter of Frobisher. Jerome, Joy, Alfie, and Patricia are the descendants of Frobisher's friends and are needed for the ceremony, but because of Caroline Denby lying about her identity, Frobisher is reawakened evil.
Everybody thinks that the ceremony didn't work out since Sibuna intervened just in time, but when Caroline goes to the gatehouse to pack her bags, she meets Frobisher, who is reawakened and evil. Caroline does not tell Eric Sweet or Victor about this. Robert explains to Caroline that he needs to capture five sinning people for Ammut at midnight or noon, so that they could become evil. The sinners captured are Victor, Patricia, Mr. Sweet, Fabian and Alfie. Ammut rises, but needs more souls. She gives Frobisher a book that easily captures people's souls. A fake assembly is organized as an attempt to capture more souls. Willow is the only person who didn't become a sinner. Willow, Eddie and K.T. are chased by Frobisher and the soul-less students but Harriet comes to the rescue with a stolen ambulance. She explains that Willow didn't become a sinner because she had K.T.'s moon key, and that Ammut can be sent back with Caroline's sun key and K.T.'s moon key. Willow becomes a sinner when she and K.T. try to steal the sun key because Harriet slipped the moon key into K.T.'s pocket. In the end, Ammut is sent back, devouring Caroline. Frobisher is not evil again and old. All the sinners are back to normal and don't remember what happened during the time they were sinners. Willow doesn't even remember the short time that she was good, so she forgot about the whole mystery. The Sibunas, of course, are told by Eddie and K.T. about what happened. Frobisher and Harriet set off for Egypt, and Jerome and Joy finally get together after a lot of drama, involving Jerome cheating on Mara and Willow. Mara and Fabian flirt. The group enjoys a fireworks display.
In the finale special Touchstone of Ra, the Anubis House residents are preparing for their graduation; however, their joyous celebration plans are cut short with the arrival of four fourth years who move in early – Cassie, Erin, Dexter and Sophia. Patricia instantly antagonizes Sophia because she spotted her flirting with Eddie. On their trip to an Egyptian museum, Eddie, Dexter and Sophia discover a special artifact known as the Touchstone of Ra. Back at the house, Victor announces that an artifact from the museum was stolen, and the Touchstone suddenly appears to be in Eddie's possession. Victor confiscates the Touchstone but has no intentions of returning it. Later, the Sibunas overhear Victor speaking to Mr. Sweet about what happens when the Pyramid of Ra is built. They plan to prevent him from building the Pyramid, retrieving the Touchstone for good measure. Eventually, Eddie discovers that Sophia has betrayed them when she plans to complete the Pyramid of Ra herself. At the graduation ceremony, Mara is manipulated by an unknown force when she wears the valedictorian medal. At the house, the Sibunas team up with Victor to find the remaining pillars of the Pyramid to stop Sophia from accomplishing her goal. In the final showdown, the Pyramid is incomplete and the students are saved. Since Sophia fails, she is transformed into stone as a punishment from Ra. Eddie loses his Osirian powers in the process. Since Victor's "destiny" was to prevent the pyramid from ever being built, he decides to leave the house for good that evening as the students celebrate their graduation party.
Cast and characters
Main cast
| Name | Actor/Actress | Present in Episodes | Season |
| Nina Martin | Nathalia Ramos | 1–150 | 1–2 |
| Fabian Rutter | Brad Kavanagh | 1–191 | 1–3 |
| Patricia Williamson | Jade Ramsey | 1–191 | 1–3 |
| Amber Millington | Ana Mulvoy Ten | 1–160 | 1–3 |
| Mick Campbell | Bobby Lockwood | 1–72, 141–150 | 1–2 |
| Mara Jaffray | Tasie Lawrence | 1–191 | 1–3 |
| Jerome Clarke | Eugene Simon | 1–191 | 1–3 |
| Alfie Lewis | Alex Sawyer | 1–191 | 1–3 |
| Joy Mercer | Klariza Clayton | 1, 29–32, 37, 47, 56–191 | 1–3 |
| Eddie Miller | Burkely Duffield | 75–191 | 2–3 |
| KT Rush | Alexandra Shipp | 151–191 | 3 |
| Willow Jenks | Louisa Connolly-Burnham | 151–191 | 3 |
Supporting cast
Production and development
Production on the pilot episode began in August 2009, though with a different cast and a different title than the eventual series. In March 2010 Studio 100 announced that the series was sold to Nickelodeon in the United States, and Nickelodeon confirmed that House of Anubis was in development for a planned fall 2010 debut. The series was filmed in the summer of 2010 in Liverpool, and was first broadcast in the United States on 1 January 2011. Nickelodeon included House of Anubis in its 10 March 2011 press release for its annual Upfront presentation to advertisers and media.The series is the first original series produced for the flagship U.S. Nickelodeon channel to be produced outside of North America. The series is structured in a different manner from other live-action television series in that each episode consists of two eleven-minute segments, a format commonly used in half-hour animated series ; and the series' episodes are formatted to be broadcast in the five-day-a-week format that is typically common with soap operas or telenovelas.
On 29 June 2011, Entertainment Weekly confirmed that Nickelodeon had ordered a second season of House of Anubis and that production would begin on 21 July 2011 in Liverpool. A total of forty-five half-hour episodes were aired, premiering on 9 January 2012.
On 16 April 2012, a third season was confirmed by Nickelodeon and Lime Pictures. Nathalia Ramos, who played lead character Nina Martin, did not return for the series' third season so that she could focus on finishing college. Eugene Simon confirmed that filming of the third season would begin in the summer of 2012. On 16 July 2012, Nickelodeon announced on their Twitter page and the website's blog that filming of season 3 would begin that month. Bobby Lockwood announced on his Twitter page that he would not be returning for the series' third season, but instead that he had a new show called Wolfblood coming out on CBBC later in 2012. It was announced on the House of Anubis Facebook page that there would be new characters named KT Rush, played by Alexandra Shipp, and Willow, played by Louisa Connolly-Burnham.
The series was filmed in Liverpool with Ye Priory Court standing in for Anubis House, the gardens are filmed in Croxteth Park and Peckforton Castle Lodge, located in Chester, standing in for the gatehouse.