At the end of Hocus Pocus 2, Doug Jones‘ Billy Butcherson is given a loving goodbye. With the Sanderson sisters having been defeated, all of their spells are undone, and that includes the one that has resurrected Billy as a zombie. He peacefully fades away to a mysterious afterlife.
It works as a conclusion to the character’s story – but if it turns out that there is more story to tell, Doug Jones is more than happy to be a part of adventure, be it Hocus Pocus 3 or some form of spinoff.
The actor was asked about his potential future as Billy Butcherson during an interview with Collider. His reply wasn’t exactly filled with a great deal of optimism that something will actually happen, but he noted that he would be game to reprise the role. Said Jones,
Both of those things I think are possible, and I would say yes to either, by the way, if offered. Yeah, Hocus Pocus 2 took 29 years to make, so I’m not holding my breath, but could there be a Hocus Pocus 3? You know… the goodbyes at the end of Hocus Pocus 2 are kind of final. When the witches were gone and Winifred gave this… Bette Miller did this beautiful tear-jerky speech that kind of resolved her… and it let her live in eternity in peace. And Billy kind of said a final goodbye too.
If there were to be some kind of Billy Butcherson spinoff, it likely wouldn’t be a sequel simply because of the aforementioned conclusion the character gets in Hocus Pocus 2. That being said, his return in the sequel arrives with the reveal that he remained awake since 1993, and perhaps he didn’t spend 29 years under dirt…
Doug Jones isn’t brimming with confidence that such a project will ever come together, and he doesn’t express inside knowledge about how he couldn’t return for Hocus Pocus 3, but he emphasized that he would be interested in being a part of either:
So I don’t… I don’t know, in the magical world of Disney, they could bring anybody back, I’m sure. So if there’s, if there’s a part three, and if it was offered to me, yes, the answer is yes. If there was a Billy spin-off, let’s explore it. Yes.
In June 2023, a profile piece about Disney executive Sean Bailey noted that Hocus Pocus 3 was among the projects the studio was working on – but limited information about the movie has been made available since then (Bette Midler has said that conversations about the sequel are being had “very gingerly and very gently.”). Screenwriter Jen D’Angelo has teased the sequel saying that filmmakers have “only scratched the surface of Hannah Waddingham’s mother witch” from Hocus Pocus 2.
While we wait for Hocus Pocus 3 to come into focus (sorry, had to do it), fans can rewatch both Hocus Pocus and Hocus Pocus 2 with a Disney+ subscription, as both titles are available in the streaming service’s library.