Spirit of Halloweentown

Spirit of Halloweentown is a 2025 American fantasy Halloween film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay written by and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The film stars Kimberly J. Brown returning as Marnie Piper after . Also reprising their roles are Judith Hoag as Gwen, Joey Zimmerman as Dylan, Emily Roeske as Sophie, as Luke, and Robin Thomas as Kalabar with new cast members Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Hilliard, Mila Jones, and Danny DeVito. It is the fifth film of the series. The story takes place 19 years after . After successfully hiding the Amulet, Marnie is now a mother and ahead of the Cromwell line in charge of training her kids, Billy and Agnes. She soon discovers that Kalabar has returned from the dead to finish what he started of taking over Halloweentown. It is up to Marnie, Johnny, and Agnes to protect the Amulet and stop Kalabar before it is too late!
Principal photography began in in September 2024 and ended in December, with the film containing notable references to the previous films as a tribute to late actress . It was released on Disney+ on September 26, 2025. The film received positive reviews, praising the cast performances, humor, and nostalgia.
== Plot ==
After the unfortunate passing of Aggie Cromwell, Marnie becomes the head of the Cromwell line and must finish Sophie's training in Halloweentown, especially in her inter-dimensional time travel. Marnie's kids, Billy and Agnes traditionally visit The Cromwell Manor every five mortal Halloweens.
It is soon discovered that every visit, Kalabar's wife, Katrina, has been searching for the Amulet 19 years after Marnie fulfilled her prophecy and successfully concealed it in one of Dylan's books. Ever since her son, Kal lost the Spellbooks to Marnie at 'the battle of good and evil', Katrina has been planning to resurrect Kalabar and together him and his family will plot revenge to use the powers of the Amulet to control the creatures of Halloweentown!
It is up to the team, Marnie, Billy, Agnes, and even an antique shop owner warlock Randall M. Doom and an old goblin friend Luke, to travel back to prevent the Kalabar from their plans of ruling then destroying Halloweentown.
It took the power of three Cromwell witches to create the stone, so it must take the power of the three Cromwell witches to destroy the stone once and for all.
== Cast ==
* Johnny Depp as Randall M. Doom, a powerful warlock and the proud owner of the antique shop known as "The Wandering Eye" where he sells magical items like crystal balls, shrunken heads, voodoo dolls, spell books, magic wands, etc. which has been in business for over 200 years. He was one of Aggie Cromwell's old students.
* Kimberly J. Brown as Marnie Piper, the head of Cromwell line and the main protagonist of the film.
* Helena Bonham Carter as Katrina, the wife of Kalabar who plans to resurrect her husband. she is the central antagonist of the film.
* Julian Hilliard as William "Billy" Piper, the son of Marnie and older brother of Agnes. He is named after his grandfather, William Piper. Billy's personality is a lot like Marnie's. He is kind, smart, loving, and intuitive. He is also the deuteragonist of the film.
* Mila Jones as Agnes Piper, the daughter of Marnie and younger sister of Billy. She’s curious about everything that goes on in her every-day life and has a lot say on her mind.
* Joey Zimmerman as Dylan Piper, the middle brother of Marnie and Sophie and the uncle of Billy and Agnes.
* Emily Roeske as Sophie Piper, the younger sister of Marnie and Dylan and aunt of Billy and Agnes.
* Danny DeVito as Marty, a sorcerer and old friend of Aggie Cromwell who has the magical abilities to control the weather, from conjuring catastrophic lightning storms to forging majestic rainbows.
* as Luke, Marnie's old goblin friend who helps Marnie and her kids on their journey.
* Judith Hoag as Gwen Piper, the mother of Marnie, Dylan, and Sophie and the grandmother of Billy and Agnes.
* Lucas Grabeel as Ethan Dalloway, Marnie's husband and Billy and Agnes' father.
* Robin Thomas as Kalabar, an evil warlock who was brought back to life seeking revenge on the Cromwell-Piper family. He is the long anticipated, returning main antagonist of the film.
* Daniel Kountz as Kal, the son of Kalabar. he is the secondary antagonist of the film.
* Alan Tudyk as the voice of Benny, the skeleton taxi driver. He was voiced by Rino Romano in the and Richard Side in the .
* Mads Mikkelsen as 
* Javier Bardem as 
* Michael Keaton as 
* Benicio del Toro as 
* Arnold Vosloo as 
* John de Lancie - Victor Imperium
== Production ==
=== Development ===
In July 2022, it was announced that The Walt Disney Company was developing a supernatural-themed film about witches and warlocks, and that Tim Burton was on board as director. However, Deadline Hollywood debunked rumors that the film was another sequel to . In November 2019, Kimberly J. Brown said that she was ready and willing to return as Marnie Piper. She also said her co-star Daniel Kountz was interested in reprising the role of Kal as well, but stressed that Disney had yet to greenlight any sequel, encouraging fans of the original film to persuade Disney to another Halloweentown. In November 2020, Midler stated in a Facebook Q&A that "after all these years and all the fan demand, I do believe I can stand and firmly say an unequivocal no" in response to a question about a sequel.
In June 2021, actor Doug Jones mentioned that Disney had been considering a sequel, and behind the scenes discussions were in place to possibly continue the series. In October 2021, while promoting her HBO show Divorce, Joey Zimmerman was asked by Brandon Greene about a sequel. Her response was "I would love that. I think we've been very vocal that we're very keen", yet she insisted that fans should encourage Disney to develop a sequel. An online announcement came too soon after the death of in December 2016 (who played Aggie Cromwell in the four films). The announcement was criticized by Bradley Pierce (who played Peter Shepherd in Jumanji) and by E! News, which called the remake "unnecessary and kind of insulting".
In February 2022, Burton revealed that there had been talks to do a sequel set nineteen years after and that he was approached to be involved on it. In October 2022, a sequel was announced to be in development as a Disney+ exclusive film, with a screenplay written by .
=== Casting ===
On November 1, 2022, Kimberly J. Brown, Judith Hoag, Joey Zimmerman, and Emily Roeske expressed interest in reprising their roles as the Cromwell-Pipers in the sequel. In September 2022, Brown revealed that she has entered talks to return in the film as Marnie (after not being in Return to Halloween), and in October 2022, she confirmed that she will return alongside Kountz as Kal, though their returns were not officially confirmed until May 2023. In October 2023, it was announced that Julian Hilliard had been cast as one of the main characters as Marnie's son, Billy. Shortly afterwards, Robin Thomas was reported to reprise his role as Kalabar. That same month, Johnny Depp has joined the cast as Aggie Cromwell's old student, Randall M. Doom. The full supporting cast was confirmed on October 31, 2024, including Mila Jones and the return of , who portrayed Luke in the first two films. In March 2025, it was announced that Helena Bonham Carter would be cast for the role of Kalabar's wife, Katrina. In the summer of that year, it was then announced that Danny DeVito will be joining the cast and Alan Tudyk will be the new voice of Benny the Skeleton taxi driver.
=== Pre-production ===
On October 29, 2023, Brown stated that a story outline for the sequel has been completed, which she praised as "pretty great" along with Judith Hoag. On November 3, Brown revealed that the producers are trying to re-hire several members of the first film's production team that are alive and hadn't retired, as they felt much of the success of the first film came from the work of the behind-the-scenes team.
=== Filming ===
Like the previous films, Spirit of Halloweentown is filmed in . It was made to be more gothic in a Tim Burton-style.
Footage was leaked on November 2, 2024. Filming also took place on November 8, 2024, in Newport's Washington Square taking place in a modern Salem, Massachusetts. On December 10, 2024, filming began in Federal Hill, which was transformed with a Halloween-themed backdrop. On January 26, 2025, Brown took to social media confirming that filming had been completed.
== Music ==
Main article: Spirit of Halloweentown/soundtrack
In October 2024, it was announced that Danny Elfman was set to score the film. The soundtrack, which features two new songs in addition to Elfman’s score and a cover song of This is Halloween by Real Chanty, was released digitally by Walt Disney Records on September 30, 2025 and will be released physically on November 11, 2025.
== Release ==
Spirit of Halloweentown was released on September 26, 2025, on Disney+.
== Reception ==
=== Audience viewership ===
Disney+ reported Spirit of Halloweentown was the service's most-viewed film premiere in the United States, based on number of hours streamed in the first three days of its release. According to Whip Media, Spirit of Halloweentown was the most watched straight-to-streaming title of 2025 in its first three days, as of October 2022, the most watched film across all platforms in the United States, during the week of September 26, 2025 to October 2, 2022, the 2nd most watched film across all platforms in the United States, during the week of October 9, 2025, and the 4th most watched film across all platforms in the United States, during the week of October 23, 2025. According to the streaming aggregator Reelgood, Spirit of Halloweentown was the most watched program across all platforms, during the weeks of October 5, 2025 and October 14, 2025.
=== Critical response ===
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 86% based on 145 reviews with an average rating of 5.70/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Spirit of Halloweentown is basically a magical boiling cauldron of nostalgia, but that's more than enough for this belated sequel to cast a reasonably effective spell." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 55 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Claire Shaffer of The New York Times said that while the film "may be a blatant attempt by Disney to continue propping up its streaming platform Disney+ [...], it manages to make a good comeback and capture the same hokey magic of the previous films while creatively updating its humor."
== Trivia ==
* This is the first sequel since (2006).
* Kimberly J. Brown and Emily Roeske return as Marnie and Sophie Piper in the film since their last appearance in (2004).
* It was originally going to be a stop-motion animated remake of the first film.
* This is the only Halloweentown film to have a rating (PG).
* This is the only film in the Halloweentown film series to not feature (who played Aggie Cromwell in the previous films) due to her death in December 28, 2016.
* Though Aggie did not appear in the film, she did makes appearances through archive footages from the previous films and in photos. This was to pay tribute to Reynolds.
*Benny is CGI in this film, while Halloweentown 1,2, and 4 he's animatronic.
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