Summary

  • Hocus Pocus 3 is still in development, and the team is currently in the story phase, exploring various ideas and potential storylines.
  • The Mother Witch character, played by Hannah Waddingham in Hocus Pocus 2, is being considered for a more significant role.
  • While no storylines are concrete yet, the team hopes to see the return of the Sanderson sisters as adults and take the characters on exciting adventures.

Hocus Pocus 3 has gotten a hopeful update and a tease toward the potential return of a major character. The movie is a follow-up to the 2022 Disney+ original Hocus Pocus 2, which was a sequel to the original 1993 cult classic. Both movies followed the Sanderson sisters (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy), a trio of witches who have twice been unleashed upon Salem, Massachusetts on Halloween. The new movie was confirmed to be in development this June, with Hocus Pocus 2 director Anne Fletcher and writer Jen D'Angelo set to return.

sequel Hocus Pocus 3. She shared that progress is being made in the wake of the end of the 2023 writers strike, but "we're still in the story phase." However, she teased that a story they are considering involves Hannah Waddingham's character the Mother Witch, who originally gave the Sanderson sisters their spellbook, saying "we've only scratched the surface" of that character. Read D'Angelo's full quote below:

We're still in the story phase, we're still working on it. We've been working on some ideas, and it's been fun to dive back into that world and we have so many directions in which to go and so many new characters to explore. We've only scratched the surface of Hannah Waddingham's Mother Witch. [No storylines are concrete yet.]

I believe that she's that mother [that's referenced in the original movie,] that she is the scorpion pie mother, and that they had a much more significant relationship with her than we've yet to see. But, maybe we will see. Anything's on the table. We for sure want to see [the Sanderson sisters] again as adults, [but I was enamored by the actors playing them as kids and] I'm hoping that we are able to explore every aspect of these stories and take these characters on a bunch of fun adventures.

3 is still very much in the early stages, we don't really know what it is, but we're exploring all options and I think everybody is so delighted by the reaction that Hocus Pocus 2 got, and we're excited to continue those stories.

Mother Witch Explained (And Where She Could Fit Into Hocus Pocus 3)

Hannah Waddingham as the Witch Mother in Hocus Pocus 2

While a “mother” was obliquely referenced in the original Hocus Pocus, the sequel offered a much closer glimpse at the character. The Hocus Pocus 2 cast featured Ted Lasso's Hannah Waddingham as the character in the movie's prologue, which takes place in 1653. In addition to giving Winifred the spellbook on her sixteenth birthday, Mother Witch advises the girls on how to maintain their youth as well as which spell they must avoid at all costs. She also reveals that she ires their bond as sisters, which provides them with a coven.

D’Angelo’s attachment to the actors who played the young Sanderson sisters (Taylor Paige Henderson, Juju Brener, and Nina Kitchen) could also indicate that the next movie will follow stories on two different timelines. Like the sequels Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and The Godfather Part II before it, Hocus Pocus 3 could give more or less equal weight to both timelines and have them mirror one another's themes. This would be a perfect opportunity to explore the Mother Witch character further, considering what an important role she played in the formative years of the Sanderson sisters.

However, the Hocus Pocus 2 ending implied that Mother Witch could exist in the current timeline as well. Although she is not shown in the contemporary era, she was last seen transforming into a crow, which appears at the very end of the movie. This means that Hocus Pocus 3 could give her equal weight in both timelines, potentially even placing her as an antagonist to the Sanderson sisters in some capacity, their relationship possibly having altered over the centuries.

Source: EW