The Sanderson sisters are poised to put a spell on audiences again.
A third Hocus Pocus movie is officially in the works.
The news broke on Sunday when The New York Times shared a profile on Sean Bailey, the president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Production.
News of the latest chapter in the franchise isn’t much of a surprise given that Disney+ revealed that the years-in-the-works Hocus Pocus 2 delivered enormous numbers for the streaming service upon its launch last year.
The original Hocus Pocus premiered in theaters in 1993, but the film was a commercial disaster.
However, the movie became a cult hit as the years passed, with many calling for a sequel.
The good news is that the sequel reached much success and has seemingly given Disney the desire to expand the franchise some more.
While Hocus Pocus 2 seemingly wrapped things up for the Sanderson sisters, it’s hard to imagine a movie without Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy.
Their performances as the three main witches are the critical driving force behind the franchise’s success.
Midler admitted that she would be interested in a comeback despite the seemingly final fate of the sisters.
“I’d love to have a franchise — especially a character I love playing,” she said to Entertainment Weekly.
“If there was a third one, of course I’d sign on, but I don’t know how. I can’t imagine what the story would be, but I love Winifred, Sarah, Mary and our relationship.”
“It’s good for women. We stick together through hell and high water, but we do cause mayhem, and not many women cause that much mayhem.”
Many faces from the original movie, including Thora Birch, were missing from the sequel, so there’s also that possibility they could stage a comeback in the next film.
Birch said in September 2022, there was a plan to bring her back as Dani Dennison for the second movie, but things fell apart.
“There were three options we had for bringing Dani back, all of which I was excited by,” Birch said in an interview with ET Online.
But, “by the time they got around to filming, I was already on something else.”
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.