Bette Midler teases Hocus Pocus 3 and potential return to her 'ridiculous-looking' Winifred

Bette Midler just served up a small morsel of a teaser for Hocus Pocus 3 that's sweeter than mother's scorpion pie.

After Hocus Pocus 3 screenwriter Jen D'Angelo told Entertainment Weekly in October about her early ideas for where the sequel might take the Sanderson Sisters witches (Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy), the Oscar-nominated actress has revealed a brief tease about her potential return as coven leader Winifred.

"Now, they're kind of talking about a third, very gingerly and very gently," Midler said on a recent episode of The Jess Cagle Show. "They are. They're talking about a third. The second one was a huge success."

The 78-year-old also reflected on her affection for playing Winifred Sanderson, calling the devilish villainess "probably the least like me of any character" she's ever played.

"She is the closest thing I will ever get to Shakespeare. She's from the era, from the time of Shakespeare. She really does put it on, and yet she has all the great things you love in a great villain. She's vicious, she's hilarious, she's ridiculous-looking, and she doesn't know any of that," Midler said. "It goes completely over her head."

The iconic actress didn't elaborate further on the third film, though D'Angelo previously told EW that, eight months ago, the crew was "still in the story phase," but that she'd unearthed some fun potential directions for the witchy trio.

"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," D'Angelo said, adding that she was interested in expanding on a specific character from the 2022 Disney+ sequel, which was released nearly 30 years after the 1993 original Hocus Pocus. "We've only scratched the surface of Hannah Waddingham's mother witch."

D'Angelo also confirmed news EW broke in early 2022 regarding actress Thora Birch's involvement in the sequel, as we reported that original stars Birch, Vinessa Shaw, and Omri Katz — who initially played a group of children who unwittingly resurrected the sinister Sandersons in 1993 Salem — would not return for the second film.

"I was so invested in trying to get [Birch as] Dani back into the story. We had a bunch of different versions of that, too, where she was really a part of it," D'Angelo revealed, adding that "there were some versions where she was popping in briefly as a cameo," and another where "she has a whole arsenal of anti-magic" to fight the witches' second resurrection (this time at the hands of new stars Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, and Lilia Buckingham).

Upon its release in September 2022, Hocus Pocus 2 earned positive critical reviews and broke records on Disney+, leading Disney to announce in 2023 that a third film was in the works.

"Kathy had a good idea that the third one should be animated," Parker told EW in a 2022 interview for the second film. "That would be cool and a smart idea. It's fun, funny, and could be interesting and innovative, like old-fashioned or new [animation]. Of course I'd be happy to have a conversation, it just depends on what Kathy and Bette want!"

Hocus Pocus and Hocus Pocus 2 are now streaming on Disney+.