The Cheat Sheet
Everything We Know About the ‘Hocus Pocus’ Remake
Mandi Kerr
October 24, 2019
Mister D: I’m just going to stay out of the arguments about the original witches coming back because people just get too emotionally invested, but I certainly am pretty sure I’m going to be right.
In the words of Winifred Sanderson (Bette Midler), ‘tis time. Time for a Hocus Pocus remake that is. But don’t expect to get spooky on Halloween watching a new generation of teens in Salem, Mass., stop the Sanderson sisters from sucking the life out of the city’s children before sunrise. Ahead, learn why we probably won’t see a Hocus Pocus remake until next year.
Initially very different from what audiences saw in the final cut of Hocus Pocus that hit theaters in July of 1993 — yes, July — the Kenny Ortega directed movie originated as a bedtime story. It took years to make and didn’t produce stellar numbers at the box office right away.
A little bit of hocus pocus — and lots of airings on Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween — the film’s become a cult classic. It’s to October what A Christmas Story is to December. Find how to watch the movie on Freeform this month plus, learn whether or not Hocus Pocus is available to stream on Netflix or Hulu
‘Hocus Pocus’ remake may premiere in 2020
Here’s what we know about the remake of the movie starring Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker. Earlier this year, reports surfaced about a potential spin-off movie being in the works.
“A Hocus Pocus 2 is in development that will have a new cast and is expected to release on Freeform (or possibly on Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+),” Screen Ranted reported in February. Disney+ is set to launch next month with Hocus Pocus among the many, many offerings on the platform. According to Collider, Disney+ released a three-hour trailer — yes, really — teasing movies and TV shows that will be available.
Back in 2017, Disney retweeted a story from Oh My Disney about a Hocus Pocus remake being in the works.
@Disney
A New Iteration of #HocusPocus Is Coming to @DisneyChannel: http://di.sn/60148NAIe
As of Oct. 2019, no cast has been confirmed and as far as we know, the remake has yet to begin production. Although there’s been a lot of talk about a remake, Disney hasn’t confirmed or denied that one is currently underway.
Meaning, there’s no way audiences will see a new iteration of Hocus Pocus before the year ends. It’s likely the remake will premiere of Disney+ in 2020 — maybe in July like the original or in the month of October — just in time for Halloween. Unfortunately, Najimy, Midler, Parker, and the rest of the original cast will likely not make an appearance in the Hocus Pocus remake.
But Vinessa Shaw, who played Allison in the original movie, gave fans hope in the form of an Instagram post earlier this month. On Oct. 2, she shared a picture of her and other cast members from Hocus Pocus, standing around a crystal ball. She captioned the post, “Oh, will there be a #2?…‘Tis time! ,” suggesting to fans a remake is on the way. But, again, Disney hasn’t officially said one is in the works.
In the meantime, we’ll continue watching Hocus Pocus on repeat.
Find out Parker’s favorite memory from filming Hocus Pocus — it’s certainly unexpected.
Mister D, I usually tend to agree with you, but I think that you are too determined to say “no” this time:
You say, that “‘it’s not even gonna be a movie for theaters, but JUST (??) for TV’, when Disney+ has some of the heighest budgets ever for their new releases (for instance over 15 mio an episode for their STAR WARS series to be shown exlusively on this new channel or pay-checks for stars such as Meryl Streep or Reese Whiterspoon signing on to new projects. So no: this is not necessarily going to be cheap at all; quite the opposite, actually!
Hocus Pocus was a bomb at the theater but a huge hit on TV; why not take advatage of this? These days, TV has more financial power than ever and big A-listers such as the divine Miss M therefore are more than willing (and happy!) to to be offered work on Netflix (The Politician – okay part – big money) (so are Scorsese, Spielberg, de Niro, Streep etc)) – and Disney+ intends to become even bigger then them. Money and production-values don’t speak against an involvement at all!
In addition, you are saying that Disney simly waited too long and that 30 years later, the protagonists are too old: How should this be true when they portray witches that are more than 300 years old? Age definitely is no reason to say “no”, either. I am sure that they are looking at a 2023 release – 30 magical years after the initial was released.
Lastly, all three lead actresses have expressed interested in reprising their roles AND Disney is keen to bring them on board. At the moment, they are developing the script: nothing at all says that they would be reduced to minor parts!
… and one more thing: do you think it was a coincidence that Bette was awarded their “Legend-award” a few weeks ago? How awesome (and appropriate!) would it have been, if Bette could have said that they were working on a Hocus-Pocus-sequel? Her sudden(and inexplicable – bad weather: really?) absence rather indicated that their deal was not sealed yet (but is on its way).
There is a good (meaning “better”) chance that this might come true – more so than the pic with Sharon Stone (which I understand you still think is “on”) or the Mae-West movie.
Sorry, just gut feeling. BTW there was a huge storm in NY that night and I had that confirmed. I’m going by things Bette has said in passing: like that ship has sailed. Working with Bette’s people over the phone on certain things I just learned more than I wanted to know. Of course they’re all going to say they’d do it again. The only thing that might come down to age is strapping Bette into a harness, but now they have CGI. When the news first came out it said with a new cast, and then like a passing reference that we hope we can get the other 3 in some capacity. That dooms the movie right there, but now the copy is changing and it’s more like Will they or won’t they.? It keeps everybody’s hopes up just to be smashed. And I can’t see them just doing cameos. I hope I’m wrong, but I have gone thru 40+ years of movies being announced and they never happen. Allot will depend on the script. The last movie she was to do with no script was DivaNation and where did that go. I just protect myself from disappointment. I mean I have 14 years of scripts that never made it all throughout this site and I don’t even think it’s thorough. I’m just trying to temper people’s excitement a little
And Bette thinks Disney’s cheap anyway lol it’s why Touchstone was made