Disney just added Jodie Foster and Walton Goggins to Hexed. Foster is playing a witch queen, Queen Celeste. Goggins is playing a green cat, Beef Roger Crummchuk. That is not a joke.
Some context.
Look, D23 Ultimate Fan Event is here, and this is the weekend Disney fans have been circling all year. Everything gets settled at this thing. Months of speculation, rumor threads, prediction posts, and wish lists all collide inside about seventy-two hours. Some people walk out vindicated. Others watch a favorite theory get demolished on stage. And every single time one reveals lands that nobody wrote down.
The film side already delivered too, with Frozen 3 plot details that would carry an entire news cycle on their own.
But this other announcement deserves a look, because the movie in question is a lot closer than most of the slate.
Disney's Hexed opens November 25, 2026. That is about three months out. The cast list has been thin this whole time.
Not anymore.
Who Just Got Added to Hexed
Jodie Foster as the witch queen, Queen Celeste.
Walton Goggins as a green cat, Beef Roger Crummchuk.
Two very big names for an original animated film that has been building quietly instead of all at once.
The Full Hexed Roster
- Hailee Steinfeld as Billie Doe, the teenage lead
- Rashida Jones as Alice Doe, Billie's cautious mother
- Jodie Foster as the witch queen
- Walton Goggins as a green cat
- Tracey Ullman as Ms. Quill, an enchanted feather quill pen
- Stephen Fry as Elias Quire, a magical journal
Steinfeld and Jones came on board back in April at CinemaCon, where Disney also rolled previously unseen footage, including a scene of Billie taking a personality test.
And look at those supporting roles. An enchanted quill pen. A magical journal. Those are weirdly specific concepts, which usually means somebody actually built a world here instead of defaulting to generic magic.
What the Movie Is
Hexed is an all-new original film following teenage Billie and her mom, who find out Billie's weirdness is actually hidden magical powers. That discovery yanks them out of suburbia and into Hexe, a world where magic runs free.
Works on two levels simultaneously.
On the surface, a teenager discovers she is capable of something extraordinary. Very familiar animation territory, and popular for a reason.
Underneath it lies the mother-daughter relationship, the rarer piece. A cautious type-A mom paired with an unconventional daughter who turns out to be the stronger of the two. Room for real comedy, actual emotional weight, and the sort of growth that makes animated films hit adults as hard as kids.
The People Making Hexed
Here is where the confidence comes from.
Directed by Fawn Veerasunthorn of Wish, Jason Hand of Moana 2, and Josie Trinidad, writer and director of the series Zootopia+.
Trinidad also co-directed Encanto, which became one of the most talked-about Disney animated films in years, for both its story and its music.
Produced by Roy Conli. Credits include Tangled, Big Hero 6, Treasure Planet, Strange World, and Olaf's Frozen Adventure.
Zoom out, and Hexed is coming from the same teams behind Zootopia, Moana 2, and Encanto. That is a serious lineup for a project with zero existing IP behind it.
There Is No Safety Net Here
Hexed is not a sequel. Not a franchise extension. Not riding decades of nostalgia.
New story. New world. New characters. A premise nobody has tested on an audience.
Risky, and that is exactly why it is worth watching. Disney has been leaning hard on sequels and franchise entries, and an original hit would say a lot about where the studio goes next.
That Release Date Is a Flex
November 25, 2026. Thanksgiving weekend.
One of the biggest moviegoing windows of the entire year, and Disney has played it well before.
Thanksgiving releases live or die on word of mouth, ripping through a holiday weekend when families are together and looking for something to do. Putting an original there instead of a guaranteed franchise title is a genuine show of confidence.
Why This Actually Counts
At most events, casting news is filler. Not here.
Hexed was first announced at the Walt Disney Studios Showcase Panel during Destination D23 at Walt Disney World in August 2025. Details trickled out slowly after that.
Three months from release, filling in the cast gives people something to hold on to. Steinfeld and Jones gave it credibility in April. Foster and Goggins expand it.
That matters way more for an original than a sequel. No built-in audience is sitting there waiting, so every announcement has to do the work a franchise title would never need to.
What Comes Next
D23 keeps rolling all weekend, parks side and studio side both.
Hexed lands in theaters on November 25, 2026. Expect a trailer and more footage as Disney builds toward Thanksgiving.
