20 years later, ‘Halloweentown 5’ is in development at Disney
A fifth ‘Halloweentown’ movie is in early development at Disney and, if greenlit, will air on Disney Channel and Disney+, 20 years after ‘Return to Halloweentown’ premiered in October 2006, according to The Wrap. Lily Houghton (‘Forbidden Fruits’) and Ryan Koehn (‘Gossip Girl’) are writing the film based on the characters created by Paul Bernbaum, who was responsible for the original 1998 film.
Plot details of this project have not yet been released, and no release date has been announced. The franchise has amassed 160 million hours of viewing on Disney+ worldwide. The original film also ranked among Disney+’s 10 most-watched Halloween movies in October 2025.
Houghton wrote the 2026 horror comedy ‘Forbidden Fruits,’ starring Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Chamberlain and Gabrielle Union. Koehn's other writing credits include the telefilm ‘Homeschooled,’ the crime series ‘As Night Comes,’ and the film ‘The Mad Whale.’
The original ‘Halloweentown’ centered on 13-year-old Marnie Piper, who discovers that she is a witch and must undergo training to control her powers before they are lost forever. In the 2001 sequel, ‘Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge,’ Marnie and her grandmother Aggie Cromwell journey back to the magical realm to undo a problem before the portal between worlds closes at midnight.
Kimberly J. Brown starred as Marnie in both movies and in ‘Halloweentown High’ in 2004. The late Debbie Reynolds played Aggie Cromwell. Judith Hoag, Joey Zimmerman and Emily Roeske also reprised their roles in the sequels. Sara Paxton took over the role of Marnie in the fourth film, ‘Return to Halloweentown,’ in which the character attends Witch University with her brother Dylan.
Brown has stated that she hopes to return to the franchise as Marnie. At the Step Up Inspiration Gala in Los Angeles on September 25, Brown told PauseRewind, “I have told Disney I’m down.” She said the decision rests with Disney and that fans frequently ask her about another movie. She has also encouraged fans to tag Disney+ on social media. Brown has met families who have followed the franchise across multiple generations, as she initially thought that the first film would only be out for a limited time.
Fast-forward 28 years from the original film’s October 1998 debut on Disney Channel, and a fifth ‘Halloweentown’ movie would join ‘Hocus Pocus,’ ‘Twitches’ (the 2005 Disney Channel original film starring Tia and Tamera Mowry) and ‘Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas’ in Disney’s Halloween lineup. ‘Hocus Pocus’ also received a sequel in 2022, 29 years after its 1993 debut. All four ‘Halloweentown’ movies, including ‘Return to Halloweentown,’ are currently streaming on Disney+.
