It’s an absolutely great time to be a Halloweentown fan!
According to TheWrap, a fifth Halloweentown movie is in early development at Disney Channel and Disney+. The news comes roughly 20 years to the day after the premiere of the fourth installment, Return to Halloweentown.
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. Houghton wrote the screenplay for the horror comedy Forbidden Fruits, which hit theaters earlier this year. Koehn served as a staff writer on the Gossip Girl reboot.
Additional details are still under wraps. No cast has been announced yet, so it’s unclear whether Kimberly J. Brown or Sara Paxton will return to lead the franchise as Marnie Piper. If it were up to me, it’d be Brown. Nothing against Paxton, but Brown is Marnie.
I’ve written previously about how big a deal Halloweentown was to me as a child, so this sequel is basically being made for me, right, Disney? No? You say the Halloweentown franchise has amassed 160 million hours streamed on Disney+ globally to date, with the original film ranking among the top 10 most-watched Halloween movies last October. I’m not the only one who loves this franchise? Wow.
For the unaware, the first 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. Brown played Marnie in the first three films: Halloweentown, Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge (2001) and Halloweentown High (2004).
After contract negotiations between Brown and Disney broke down for Return to Halloweentown, the role of Marnie was recast with Paxton. The sequel follows the now 18-year-old witch as she attends Witch University in Halloweentown with her brother Dylan.
I’ll be sure to keep everyone in the Wasteland updated on Halloweentown 5 once there is more to share.
Who else loves Halloweentown? If you do, head to the comments and let’s chat!
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