Disney has officially announced the fifth installment of the fan-favorite franchise Halloweentown, we learned via Entertainment Tonight. Halloweentown 5 is in early stages of script development, but the details remain “under wraps.”
Lily Houghton (Forbidden Fruits) and Ryan Koehn (Gossip Girl) are writing the script inspired by the original characters created by Paul Bernbaum in the original. The film franchise started in 1998, following Marine Piper (Kimberly J. Brown) as she uncovers family secrets and spells. Marnie discovers she’s a descendant of a long line of powerful witches, and must begin training before losing her powers forever.
Halloweentown ranks among the top 10 most-watched Halloween movies last October. Today, the franchise has over 160 million hours streamed on Disney+ around the world.
While casting is not confirmed, many of the original actors have expressed interest in reprising their roles. “I am down. I have told Disney I’m down. They know we’re all down to do another one,” Brown exclaimed to PauseRewind earlier this month. “It’s up to [Disney] at this point.”
Original Halloweentown cast members include the late Debbie Reynolds, Judith Hoag, Joey Zimmerman and Emily Roeske. Brown was replaced by Sara Paxton as Marnie in the fourth film, Return to Halloweentown in 2006. The actress shares she was available to return, yet Disney went in a different direction.
The fourth movie was a great attempt, but nothing compares to Halloweentown (1998), Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge (2001), and Halloweentown High (2004). And the next generation and Halloweentown fans deserve a Halloween film for all-ages to enjoy.
It’s not Halloween without watching the original Halloweentown series, and I’m looking forward to the continuation of the classic franchise. It will be a hard watch without Aggie Cromwell (Debbie Reynolds), the witch who started it all. I expect the new film will honor her legacy. Even though Disney hasn’t said when we are returning to Halloweentown we know that we are!