It may not look like it at first but Hocus Pocus is part of the Halloween cult classics. Though it may not necessarily be frightful or scary, its quirks and charms and family friendly scares make it an instant favorite. With such a following, one has to wonder why Disney has never bothered following it up with a sequel, especially now that sequels are huge. Well, Disney will be giving fans a brand new Hocus Pocus, just not the ones they are asking for.

Reports confirm that there will be a Hocus Pocus remake, however, it will be a TV movie and without the original cast. So how does a film without those ghoulish witches work? Well apparently, The Disney Channel has that figured out, and they’ve hired The Royals‘ Scarlett Lacey to pen the new screenplay with the film’s original movie producer David Kirschner being brought in to executive produce. More on the story below.

Deadline says Kenny Ortega, the film’s original director and who brought Disney Channel’s two of their biggest TV movies, High School Musical and The Descendants, is not involved. No word yet on why Ortega is not a part of the project.

The fact that no one from the original is even a part of the project is a bit of a strange move. Fans have been waiting for a sequel to the film for quite some time, and to hear that Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy will not return as the witches is a bit disappointing. But I guess that comes with the territory with a lot of remakes.

Since its debut, Hocus Pocus has become a Halloween phenomenon, airing on Disney Channel and Freeform on an annual basis every time October rolls in.

Given that a lot of Disney Channel made for TV movies have this musical slant to them, I can expect to see the same in this remake. And let’s not forget Midler’s cover of “I Put A Spell On You” that was featured in the film. If anything, we can probably expect to hear that one again, or at least some version of it. We’ll just have to manage our expectations and hope that they can put together a cast that at least lives up to the film. We can’t expect anything more than that. This is a TV movie remake after all. And depending on its popularity, we might even get to see two more sequels just like High School Musical and The Descendants.

[Source: Deadline]