With movie season rounding the corner, fans of nostalgic films are sure in for a treat this year. Three widely popular movies made in the past ten years ago are all receiving sequels that will be released in the next few months. Hocus Pocus and Enchanted are both significant landmarks of many peoples’ childhoods, and Avatar is one of the highest grossing movies of all time. To the enjoyment of the long-time fans, all three of these movies will be getting long awaited sequels in the next few months.

The oldest film on this list is Hocus Pocus. This iconic Disney film was released in 1993 and has been a classic Halloween film ever since. And now, in 2022, we will finally get to see the Sanderson sisters again in all of their witchy glory. Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy will all be reprising their roles in the new film. The sequel follows a similar formula to the original: a few kids bring the three witches into the modern world and try to stop them from wreaking havoc on Salem. Hocus Pocus 2 sees the three iconic witches as celebrities and well known in the present day, with, of course, the more modern spin on the original. For those people who grew up watching the original film, the sequel should be a great trip down memory lane.

Another childhood film that will be getting a sequel in 2022 is Enchanted. Any member of Gen Z is sure to know this incredibly popular staple of many people’s childhoods. Enchanted originally came out in 2007 and the sequel, Disenchanted, will be released November 24. This movie has basically a “where are they now?” sort of format, with Giselle (the main character of the first film) having her happy life in the present day. Amy Adams, James Marsden, Patrick Dempsey, Julie Andrews, and Idina Menzel will all be reprising their roles in the sequel along with new additions like actresses Maya Rudolph and Jayma Mays. There will also be new songs written by Alan Menken, the composer for Beauty the Beast and The Little Mermaid. Fans of this film have been asking for a sequel for years and 15 years after the original film came out, they will finally get what they asked for.

The highest grossing film of all time with $2,877,897,399 grossed worldwide is Avatar, which was released in theaters in 2009. This incredibly popular film will be getting its sequel on December 16. Not much is known about the plot of the film, just that the film will follow the original characters from the first film over a decade after the original film. Avatar: Way of Water seems to be a very anticipated film with the trailer having 24 million views on YouTube. Most of the original cast will be reprising their roles, like Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver. The real question is whether the sequel will hold up to the original in both critical/fan response and ticket sales.

One concern that many fans of these movies have is whether the sequels will be worth watching. All of these movies are top tier films and sequels are notorious for never living up to the original. Bad sequels can make or break a movie franchise and it seems that the latter is more likely. Not to mention that sequels have taken up a huge portion of the films in theaters recently. Companies like Disney have resorted to putting out sequels rather than coming up with more original material. This begs the question if these sequels are really meant to be quality cinema or if they are just cash grabs by big production companies.

Another interesting quality of these sequels is that the original films came out at least 10 years prior to these sequels. This begs the question: why now? Fans have been begging for sequels to these movies for years now and it almost seems too late for them. But for the die hard fans of these films, there’s no such thing as too late and hopefully these sequels will live up to the beloved originals.