Two New Celebrities Announced For ‘Hexed’ at D23, Cast Continues to Grow
D23 Ultimate Fan Event is here, and this is the weekend Disney fans have been waiting for all year.
Everything gets settled at this thing. Months of speculation, rumor threads, prediction posts, and wish lists collide inside about seventy-two hours. Some fans get vindicated. Others watch a pet theory die on stage. And every time, something drops that nobody had on the list.
The film side already started, with plot details for Frozen 3 that would carry a normal news cycle on their own.
But another announcement came out of the panel worth your attention, and it involves a movie arriving a lot sooner than most of the slate.
Disney’s Hexed opens November 25, 2026. Roughly three months out. Until now, the cast list was pretty thin.
D23 changed that.
The New Names Added to Hexed
Jodie Foster and Walton Goggins are both in Hexed.
Foster plays the witch queen, Queen Celeste.
Goggins voices a green cat. Yes, really. The cat’s name is Beef Roger Crummchuk.
Two significant additions for an original animated film that has been building its profile slowly rather than all at once.
Everyone Attached To Hexed So Far
- 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 were announced in April at CinemaCon, where Disney also showed previously unseen footage, including a scene of Billie taking a personality test.
Look at those supporting roles for a second. An enchanted quill pen and a magical journal are oddly specific character concepts, which usually signal a world with actual texture instead of generic magic.
The Premise
Hexed is an all-new original film about teenage Billie and her mother, who discover Billie’s weirdness is actually hidden magical powers. That discovery pulls them out of suburbia and into Hexe, a world where magic runs free.
It works two ways at once.
On the surface, a teenager finds out she is capable of something extraordinary. Familiar animation territory, and for good reason.
Underneath is the mother-daughter relationship, the less common piece. A cautious, type-A mother paired with an unconventional daughter who turns out to be the more powerful of the two leaves room for comedy, real emotional stakes, and character growth that plays for adults as well as kids.
Who Is Making It
This 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, one of the most talked-about Disney animated films in recent memory for both its story and its music.
Produced by Roy Conli, whose credits run through Tangled, Big Hero 6, Treasure Planet, Strange World, and Olaf’s Frozen Adventure.
Bigger picture, Hexed comes from the same teams behind Zootopia, Moana 2, and Encanto. Strong pedigree for a project with no existing property behind it.
No Franchise, No Safety Net
Hexed is not a sequel. Not a franchise extension. Not built on decades of nostalgia.
Brand new story, brand new world, brand new characters, and a premise nobody has tested on an audience yet.
That is a risk, and it is exactly why this one is interesting. Disney has been leaning hard on sequels and franchise entries lately, and an original landing well would say something about where the studio heads go next.
The Hexed Release Date Says Something
November 25, 2026, is Thanksgiving weekend.
One of the highest-traffic moviegoing windows all year, and Disney has worked it successfully before.
Thanksgiving releases live or die on word of mouth, moving fast across a holiday weekend when families are together and hunting for something to do. Dropping an original film there instead of a guaranteed franchise title is a genuine vote of confidence.
Why Casting News Actually Matters Here
At most events, this would read as filler. Not this time.
Hexed was first announced at the Walt Disney Studios Showcase Panel during Destination D23 at Walt Disney World back in August 2025. Details came out slowly after that.
Three months from release, filling in the cast gives audiences something concrete to hold onto. Steinfeld and Jones gave the film credibility in April. Foster and Goggins widen it.
That progression matters more for an original than it would for a sequel. There is no built-in audience waiting, so every announcement has to do work a franchise title would never need to.
What’s Next
D23 keeps running through the weekend, with more coming from both the parks and the studio.
Hexed hits theaters November 25, 2026. Expect a trailer and more footage as Disney builds toward Thanksgiving.
