Halloweentown’s fifth instalment is in early development at Disney — 28 years after the original film debuted.
According to multiple outlets on Thursday, October 22, a new instalment of the franchise is being worked on and will air on Disney Channel and stream on Disney+ if it is greenlit.
While no plot or cast details have been publicly released, the new incarnation comes 20 years after the last sequel, Return to Halloweentown, was released in 2006.
Kimberly J. Brown, who starred in the first three Halloweentown movies as Marnie Piper, previously told Us that she would love to return to the franchise.
“I’m totally down for anything. The fans certainly ask me every day for another one,” Brown, 41, told Us in September 2024. “The cast is totally all down and it’s up to Disney at this point.”
Brown played Marnie Piper, a teen who discovers her family is a powerful group of witches who hail from the spooky town. The Disney Channel Original Movie franchise, which premiered in 1998, also featured Judith Hoag, Joey Zimmerman, Emily Roeske and the late Debbie Reynolds. (Reynolds died in December 2016 shortly after the death of her daughter Carrie Fisher.)
The actress suggested some ideas about how they could move the story forward and shared what she thought her character had been up to in the past two decades.
“I think Marnie could be running for mayor or be mayor of Halloweentown,” she said. “Like, she was always so progressive in her ideas for Halloween time and everything. I think she would be in some kind of position like that, you know, trying to still bring about new ideas and things like that.”
Phillip van Dyke, who played goblin Luke in the first two movies, also expressed interest in coming back when asked about whether he’d be on board for a reboot by E! News in November 2020.
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“You know what, I think I could be talked into it,” he told the outlet at the time. “If the rest of the cast came back and wanted to do that, I would be up for it. I’ll actually go on record and say I would.”
Halloweentown was a massive success for Disney when it was first released and the franchise has remained relevant in today’s pop culture zeitgeist as it’s become a must-watch film during spooky season.
“When we filmed the first Halloweentown, we only thought we were doing one movie. And the fans and everybody have loved and embraced it so much over the years that we got to do more movies,” Brown told Us in 2024. “And we are just so honored we were here all these years later that people who still come up to me, literally everybody on the street. And that the movies become a part of their Halloween traditions and everything.”
