The Disney Channel Original Movie Halloweentown launched a franchise when it premiered back in 1998, with that original family-friendly Halloween movie being followed by Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge in 2001, Halloweentown High in 2004, and Return to Halloweentown in 2006. Twenty years after the last installment, the franchise is coming back to life.
The Wrap reports that Halloweentown 5 is in early development at Disney!
The outlet details this afternoon, “Lily Houghton and Ryan Koehn are developing the script for Disney, based on the characters created by Paul Bernbaum, who wrote the original 1998 film.”
The Wrap also notes in their report that the four Halloweentown movies have “amassed 160 million hours streamed on Disney+ globally to date,” which would explain why Disney is keen on bringing the franchise back to life. Hocus Pocus was another Halloween hit for Disney back in the 1990s, and the enduring popularity of that film finally led to a streaming sequel in 2022.
Halloweentown follows 13-year-old Marnie Piper as she discovers that she descends from a line of powerful witches and must begin her magical training before her powers vanish forever.
Kimberly J. Brown played main character Marnie Cromwell in the first three Halloweentown movies, with Sara Paxton taking over the role for 2006’s Return to Halloweentown.
The franchise also starred the late Debbie Reynolds as Marnie’s grandmother, Agatha Cromwell.
Lorenzo Truino wrote here on Bloody Disgusting back in 2018, “After all these years, Halloweentown still resonates with me. It’s fun, scary, and embraces Halloween to its fullest potential. It’s classic ’90s Disney that many, including myself, loved watching growing up. Best of all, it has a great message that everyone can relate to: It’s okay be different. Its okay to love being scared. Its okay to be obsessed with monsters and ghouls. Its okay to love Halloween.”