Bette Midler has called the Sanderson sisters back together. On Oct. 1, the Winifred Sanderson star posted a new image to Instagram showing three witch silhouettes standing in a smoky, backlit doorway, captioned “Sisssstaaaahs…prepare thyselves. ‘Tis time.” She tagged her co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy, and set the post to John Debney’s “Hocus Pocus Main Theme.”
The three shapes in the doorway line up with the sisters’ famous looks: Mary’s swooped hairdo on the left, Winifred’s wild curls in the middle and Sarah’s long waves on the right. The whole image is framed like a live camera monitor feed, complete with a red record light and readouts for 24 frames per second, 8K resolution, ISO 1000 and a camera label reading “A095_C003.”
Fans Are Already Running Amok
Within six hours the post had passed 105,000 likes, 1,300 comments, 5,000 reposts and 14,800 shares. The caption borrows straight from the 1993 original, where Winifred tells her sisters to “prepare thyselves” just before trying to drain a child’s life force.
The timing is not new for her. Midler kicked off a run of Hocus Pocus posts on Oct. 1 last year as well, opening with a short clip of the spellbook captioned “Tis time” and following it with behind-the-scenes photos of the three actresses in costume. Those posts set off a wave of Hocus Pocus 3 speculation, and this one is doing the same.
Where Hocus Pocus 3 Stands
Midler’s post does not say where the image comes from, and Disney has not announced a filming start or a release date for a third film. What is confirmed is that Hocus Pocus 3 is officially in development at Disney Live Action Studios, with Midler, Parker and Najimy all returning as Winifred, Sarah and Mary. That May report also said salary negotiations with the three stars had been settled and that Disney plans a theatrical release this time, after Hocus Pocus 2 went straight to Disney+ in 2022.
Midler has pushed for the sequel for years. In October 2025 she said she had read a script and that “a lot of it was brilliant,” adding that the team was still working out where it would shoot and how much it would cost. Plot details remain under wraps.
Hocus Pocus 2 premiered on Disney+ on Sept. 30, 2022, and drew 2.7 billion minutes of viewing in its opening weekend.
More Sanderson Sisters This Month
Fans who want their witches now will not have to wait long. The original film is coming to ABC’s The Wonderful World of Disney on October 18, and both movies are streaming on Disney+. Whether Midler’s latest tease turns into real Hocus Pocus 3 news before Halloween is up to Disney, but she is clearly not done casting spells this October.
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