Jodie Sweetin directs secret Hallmark movie

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Actress Jodie Sweetin

Jodie Sweetin recently apologized to fans for being “quiet” on social media lately, while leaking a secret in the process. The actress, who rose to fame as a child actress on ‘Full House,’ said her absence was because she was focused on filming a yet-to-be-announced Hallmark mystery film in Toronto.

After very few original crime series aired on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries in 2022, leaves some amazed If Hallmark had abandoned the genre, fans were ecstatic with a slew of new announcements about new mysteries in the works. But a new film with Sweetin wasn’t one of them. Here’s what you need to know:

Jodie Sweetin says her next Hallmark movie will be out in Spring 2023

During an Instagram Live on March 2, 2023, Sweetin told her fans that she hasn’t been very active on social media because she’s been so busy filming.

“I was very calm in February,” she said. “I’ve been working in Toronto, I’ve been shooting a new Hallmark movie that’s coming out this spring. It’s a mystery film, so something different.”

Sweetin, whose last Hallmark film was in 2022 “A cozy Christmas inn”, continued: “There is no Christmas here. It’s a mystery film by Hallmark. The Jane De Silva mystery is coming this spring. So I’ll keep you all updated on that.”

Jane De Silva was a character in four crime novels written by KK Beck in the early 1990s. according to Publishers Weekly. The amateur detective can be seen in “A Hopeless Case”, “Amateur Night”, “Electric City” and “Cold Smoked”.

Sweetin who has opened about her ADHD and anxiety, said during her Instagram Live that when filming, she tries to just focus on the script and the role.

She said: “When I’m working, my days are crazy. I don’t even have my cell phone with me. I’m trying to focus somehow, which is really hard for me!”

Hallmark Mysteries have changed over the past 3 years

Heavy/GettyPaul Campbell and Aimee Garcia in The Cases of Mystery Lane

Changes at Hallmark Media in recent years have fans and stars wondering if the company is still committed to producing mystery films. After former CEO Bill Abbott left the network in 2020 and launched Great American Family, Hallmark fan favorites Candace Cameron Bure and Danica McKellar defected, leaving their own mystery series behind.

McKellar January 2022 confirmed that the series was canceled after appearing in three Matchmaker Mysteries. Cameron Bure, Sweetin’s longtime co-star on Full House, has starred in more than a dozen Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, with her last airing in February 2022.

Meanwhile, in December 2021, Kellie Martin – who starred in nine “Hailey Dean Mysteries” from 2016 to 2019 – tweeted that she had learned the series was over. And in August 2022, Jesse Metcalfe told the Hallmarkies Podcast that he also had no high hopes for a sequel to his “Martha’s Vineyard Mysteries”.

“Obviously, you know, my heart hurts because that was really, you know, my baby,” he said.

But things are looking up for mystery fans, with evidence that Hallmark Media’s new executive team — including CEO Wonya Lucas and programming vice president Lisa Hamilton Daly — have been working to update and revitalize Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

On this channel said Daly to Decider in February, “we lean more into the mysteries that people really liked. We’re trying to bring back the fan favorites but also refresh them because – I loved ‘Only Murders in the Building’ so we’re trying to see how we can feel more modern with our mysteries.”

So far, this has included a second installment in the Curious Caterer franchise starring Nikki DeLoach and Andrew Walker, a new Paul Campbell film called The Cases of Mystery Lane, which premieres March 19, and announcements about the sequel to several popular mystery series.

Alison Sweeney and Cameron Mathison just reunited to film a new Hannah Swensen crime thriller, Lacey Chabert and Will Kemp were in Malta this month to shoot a new Dancing Detective movie and last week Hallmark announced plans for an Aurora Teagarden Mysteries prequel without Cameron Bure.

With the growing popularity of mysteries going even beyond Hallmark, including hits like Netflix’s “Glass Onion,” Daly said it’s the perfect time to refresh the look and feel of Hallmark-produced films.

“I think with our mysteries it can be kind of a dusty attic show, but we’re like, ‘Okay, how do we do something – which still has to be R-rated, PG maybe, especially if it’s murder – but how do we do it what works for our audience but is also fresh? And that’s what we’re trying to do, and I think there will be some fun surprises along the way.”