Bette Midler Wants a 'Hocus Pocus' Sequel, and She Dressed as Winifred Sanderson for Halloween

On Friday night, Bette Midler was at Manhattan’s Waldorf Astoria for her annual Hulaween party, a lavish Halloween-themed get-together that raises money for the actress’ New York Restoration Project charity. As befitting the holiday, the festivities include an outlandish costume party — and for the 21st anniversary of the event, Midler turned heads by appearing as none other than her beloved Hocus Pocus character Winifred Sanderson.

As fans can see from the above photo that Midler posted to Facebook (and from the red-carpet snapshots featured at Daily Mail), Midler went all-out to recreate her character from the 1993 comedy, which has transformed over the past two decades from a poorly-received flop to a cult favorite and Halloween staple. It’s got such a fervent fan base that it’s been somewhat puzzling that the Disney movie — which stars Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy as three 17th-century Salem witches who are resurrected in the present-day of the early ‘90s — hasn’t ever gotten a sequel.

Related: The Magical Tale of How ‘Hocus Pocus’ Went From Box-Office Flop to Halloween Favorite

That confusion has also been expressed by none other than Midler herself. During a Facebook Q&A last year she stated flatly that there was no chance of a follow-up. But recently, she’s speculated again why it hasn’t come to pass. “You don’t get to see women doing slapstick too much, and in the movie you can see that we’re having a blast,” she told Billboard. “For the life of me, I can’t understand why there’s not a sequel. All the shackles were off, as Donald Trump likes to say, and we were allowed to be as wild as we wanted to be. It was a perfect storm of fun.”

Watch a scene from ‘Hocus Pocus:’