Disney ‘Hexed’ 2026: Cast Revealed at CinemaCon With Steinfeld and Jones Leading
Disney made its way to CinemaCon yesterday and walked out with one of the cleaner casting announcements the studio has made in a while. Hailee Steinfeld and Rashida Jones are officially the leads of Hexed, Disney’s original animated film opening in theaters on November 25, 2026, and the moment you hear those two names together, the dynamic writes itself.
Who They Are Playing
Steinfeld is voicing Billie Doe, the teenage protagonist at the center of the story. Jones is playing her mother. The film lives and dies on that relationship, and Disney clearly knew what it was doing when it paired these two. Steinfeld has built a career on playing young women who carry a story on their own terms, and her voice work specifically has been consistently strong. Jones brings warmth, comedic timing, and a grounded quality that makes her the ideal counterweight to a teenager discovering she has magical powers. New footage shown at CinemaCon included a scene of Billie taking a personality test, a small glimpse at the tone Disney is building around this character.
Hailee Steinfeld is Billie and Rashida Jones is Alice in Disney’s #Hexed.
— Disney Animation (@DisneyAnimation) April 16, 2026
See it only in theaters November 25 pic.twitter.com/DrQbLWGsAE
What Hexed Is About
Hexed was first announced at the Destination D23 event at Walt Disney World back in August 2025. The premise follows an awkward teenage girl and her type-A mother who discover that what makes the daughter unusual is not something to fix. It is magic. Actual magical powers that are about to flip both of their lives upside down and drag them into a secret world neither of them knew existed.
The setup works on several levels. The fish-out-of-water teenager discovering hidden abilities is familiar territory for animation, but anchoring it in a mother-daughter dynamic where the type-A parent has to reckon with a child who turns out to be far more powerful than expected gives the story real room to breathe. There is comedy in that tension, genuine emotional weight, and the kind of character arc that tends to land with audiences of all ages when it is executed well.
New details for Disney Animation’s “Hexed,” in theaters in November 2026:
— Drew Smith (@DrewDisneyDude) October 5, 2025
• The movie is NOT a musical
• The movie will feature a main villain pic.twitter.com/sbMdBR9bvw
The People Making It
Jason Hand and Josie Trinidad are directing. Jared Bush is the executive producer. Roy Conli and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster-Jones are producing. Trinidad co-directed Encanto, which is a detail worth sitting with for a moment. That film connected with audiences in a way that went well beyond a standard animated release, driven by a story that took family dynamics seriously and trusted the audience to follow it into emotionally complex territory. Having her behind Hexed alongside this cast is a meaningful signal about what Disney is trying to build here.
Why This Film Matters
Disney is releasing Hexed on Thanksgiving weekend, one of the highest-traffic moviegoing periods of the year. That is not a slot the studio hands to projects it is uncertain about. Thanksgiving weekend releases depend on fast word of mouth, as families are together and looking for something to do, and Disney has used that window to launch some of its most successful films.
What makes Hexed stand out on the current Disney slate is that it is entirely original. No existing franchise. There’s no sequel setup. No decades of nostalgia are doing the heavy lifting before the film even starts. It is a new world, a new story, and a premise that has not been tested with audiences yet. The cast and creative team lend it serious credibility, and the Thanksgiving release date signals the studio’s confidence.
There is still a lot to be revealed between now and November 25. But after the CinemaCon announcement, Hexed moved from a film people knew was coming to one they are genuinely looking forward to seeing.
