An easy way to make your movie a timeless classic is to associate it with a holiday, basically guaranteeing an annual rewatch for fans. A Christmas Story and It’s A Wonderful Life play on a loop during Christmas, When Harry Met Sally or The Apartment make for the perfect New Year’s watch, and you can’t spend a Groundhog Day without thinking about watching Groundhog Day.
But Disney has really cornered the market for Halloween movies: from the many, many Halloweentown movies to The Nightmare Before Christmas, spooky family-friendly imagery is all over Disney+. But perhaps one of the studio’s most iconic Halloween movies just recently had a comeback, and now it’s repeating that strategy to make it into a trilogy.
According to Deadline, Hocus Pocus 3 is officially in early development at Disney, with Kathy Najimy, Bette Midler, and Sarah Jessica Parker all expected to return. The trio originated the roles of the witchy Sanderson sisters in the original 1993 movie directed by Disney legend Kenny Ortega, and it quickly became a go-to Halloween movie (and Halloween costume) for decades after.
In 2022, Hocus Pocus caught Disney’s terminal case of “legacy-quel” fever, and Hocus Pocus 2 revived the story after 29 years. The movie was a success, and now the third movie will reportedly take things a step further with a theatrical release, while Hocus Pocus 2 only had a streaming release on Disney+.
This isn’t actually the first time we’ve heard of plans to make Hocus Pocus a trilogy. Back in 2023, Sean Bailey, President of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, announced plans for a third movie, but no updates were released after that, and Bailey left the position in 2024, putting the project in limbo. So while this idea may seem out of nowhere, it’s actually a long time coming.
It’s also proof that Disney’s recent nostalgia-forward approach is actually working. Movies like Disenchanted and Freakier Friday took ‘90s and ‘00s stories and updated them for the modern era and a new generation. Now that Hocus Pocus is back, it can wrap up its story as what will surely become an iconic Halloween trilogy.
So as much as fans may bemoan all the remakes and sequels, it’s hard to deny: it does well with audiences. And if it brings back beloved characters from our childhood, what’s so bad about that?
