Harry Potter Meets Disney Classic in 2026's Frozen Replacement That's Coming Soon
Simon Gallagher has worked in movie and TV journalism for more than 17 years. He has written more than 6000 articles and reviews, and edited thousands more. He is an expert in the entertainment industry, particularly in the golden age of screen superheroes. Simon is also a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic.
Sign in to your ScreenRant account
Disney is about to reveal its own answer to Harry Potter, almost 30 years after the studio infamously passed on the movie rights to the first novel. The House of Mouse tried another route in 2000, attempting to acquire theme park rights to the Potterverse, but that too ended poorly. But now, after all this time, a new Disney animated movie could be the answer.
If you take Pixar out of the equation, the animated movie arm of the famous old studio has been something of a mixed bag in recent years. Since the $1.4 billion success of Frozen 2, Disney’s biggest hits have been predictable: Zootopia 2 and Moana 2, which both took over a billion (while the animated status of Mufasa’s Lion King prequel is debated, it also made more than $700m). But everything else, no matter the quality, struggled.
It took Encanto's release on Disney+ for it to find its audience, and both Strange World and Wish might as well have not released, given the complete lack of any sort of cultural footprint. It’s no longer the case that whatever Disney touches turns to box office gold, but IPs and familiarity do seem bomb proof. That makes their next project, Hexed, all the more interesting.
Ministry of Magic · O.W.L. Examinations Test Your Wizarding Knowledge “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
🦁GryffindorBravery
🐍SlytherinAmbition
🦅RavenclawWisdom
🦡HufflepuffLoyalty
🏰HogwartsMagic
01
What spell is used to disarm an opponent, famously becoming Harry Potter’s signature move throughout the series?
✓ Correct! Expelliarmus is the Disarming Charm. Harry used it so often that it became his trademark spell — even using it in his final duel against Voldemort in the Battle of Hogwarts.
✗ Not quite! The answer is Expelliarmus. Stupefy is a Stunning Spell, Protego is a Shield Charm, and Petrificus Totalus is the Full Body-Bind Curse. Expelliarmus forces an opponent’s wand out of their hand.
02
In “The Prisoner of Azkaban,” Hagrid introduces his Care of Magical Creatures class to a proud hippogriff. What is the creature’s name?
✓ Correct! Buckbeak the hippogriff became a key part of the story when Draco Malfoy insulted him and got injured. Harry and Hermione later saved Buckbeak from execution using the Time-Turner.
✗ Not quite! The answer is Buckbeak. Fang is Hagrid’s boarhound, Norbert is his baby dragon from the first book, and Aragog is the giant Acromantula in the Forbidden Forest.
03
What potion allows the drinker to assume the physical appearance of another person, and plays a major role in “The Chamber of Secrets” and “The Goblet of Fire”?
✓ Correct! Polyjuice Potion transforms the drinker into someone else for about an hour. Hermione brewed it in their second year to infiltrate the Slytherin common room, and Barty Crouch Jr. used it to impersonate Mad-Eye Moody.
✗ Not quite! The answer is Polyjuice Potion. Felix Felicis is liquid luck, Veritaserum is a truth serum, and Amortentia is a powerful love potion. Polyjuice Potion is the one that changes your appearance.
04
How many Horcruxes did Lord Voldemort intentionally create to split his soul and achieve immortality?
✓ Correct! Voldemort intentionally created six Horcruxes: the diary, the ring, the locket, the cup, the diadem, and Nagini. Harry became an accidental seventh Horcrux, making the total number of soul fragments seven — the most magically powerful number.
✗ Not quite! The answer is six. Voldemort deliberately created six Horcruxes: Tom Riddle’s diary, Marvolo Gaunt’s ring, Slytherin’s locket, Hufflepuff’s cup, Ravenclaw’s diadem, and Nagini. Harry was an unintentional seventh piece.
05
How many points is the Golden Snitch worth when caught by a Seeker during a Quidditch match?
✓ Correct! Catching the Golden Snitch awards 150 points and ends the match. This is why the Seeker position is so crucial — catching the Snitch almost always wins the game, though famously at the Quidditch World Cup, Viktor Krum caught it but Bulgaria still lost.
✗ Not quite! The answer is 150 points. The Golden Snitch is worth 150 points and also ends the match. At the 1994 Quidditch World Cup, Krum caught the Snitch for Bulgaria but Ireland still won because they were more than 150 points ahead.
06
What form does Severus Snape’s Patronus take — revealing his lifelong love for Harry’s mother, Lily?
✓ Correct! Snape’s Patronus is a doe — the same as Lily Potter’s. When Dumbledore asked “After all this time?” Snape famously replied, “Always.” It’s one of the most emotional reveals in the entire series.
✗ Not quite! The answer is a doe. Snape’s Patronus matches Lily Potter’s because of his deep, enduring love for her. James Potter’s Patronus was a stag — the male counterpart. The doe is what led Harry to the Sword of Gryffindor in the frozen lake.
07
What magical object must you look into to see the Mirror of Erised’s true purpose — and what does it show the viewer?
✓ Correct! The Mirror of Erised (“desire” spelled backward) shows the deepest desire of whoever looks into it. Harry saw his parents, Ron saw himself as Head Boy and Quidditch captain, and Dumbledore claimed he saw himself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks.
✗ Not quite! The answer is their deepest, most desperate desire. “Erised” is “desire” spelled backward. The inscription reads: “I show not your face but your heart’s desire.” Dumbledore warned Harry that the mirror gives neither knowledge nor truth, and men have wasted away before it.
08
The three Deathly Hallows are the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and which third object that Harry himself possessed?
✓ Correct! The Cloak of Invisibility was passed down through Harry’s family — he inherited it from his father, James. Unlike ordinary invisibility cloaks, this Hallow never fades or weakens, making it a true relic of Death from “The Tale of the Three Brothers.”
✗ Not quite! The answer is the Cloak of Invisibility. Harry inherited it from his father on his first Christmas at Hogwarts. Together with the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone, these three objects make up the Deathly Hallows from “The Tale of the Three Brothers.”
O.W.L. Examination Complete Your Wizarding Score
⚝
/ 8
Outstanding, Exceeds Expectations, or Troll?
Another modern Disney “princess” movie (without the royalty), Hexed is a female-led fantasy that started out as something very different, with similar bones to both Harry Potter and Frozen, and it could be Disney’s best chance at capturing the audiences of both franchises to finally score an original movie success after years of trying. You won’t find the traditional fairy-tale tropes or classical damsel structure, but there’s an obvious attempt at magical world-building that might genuinely help ease Harry Potter fans through the final month before the HBO reboot drops.
Hexed is Disney's Answer to Harry Potter
Like many fantasies before it, Hexed taps into the same chosen-one archetype that JK Rowling borrowed for Harry Potter. The new story follows a young, troubled outsider who spent her life feeling misplaced, only to suddenly unlock magical capabilities that lead her first to being expelled and then discovering the existence of an entire hidden magical world. Sounds familiar, right? The new world comes with kindly magical companions - in this case a talking spellbook (voiced by Harry Potter icon Stephen Fry), and quill (Tracey Ullman) - deep historical lore, magical rules, and ancient rivalries.
Like Harry, the lead - Billie Doe (Hailee Steinfeld) - learns to use her magical skills, uncovers familial secrets and comes face to face with nefarious followers of a magical big bad (played by Jodie Foster), and encounters magical creatures, including Walton Goggins’ three-eyed cat. The world-building very much mirrors the split between the Muggle world and the hidden Wizarding world of Rowlings’ world, and the story trope similarities are impossible to ignore.
Hexed Can Give Disney Another Frozen Replacement
If the Harry Potter appeal wasn’t enough, Hexed is clearly also aiming at capturing the same audience as drove Frozen’s success - and that of its sequel. With Frozen 3 still a year away - and releasing exactly 12 months after Hexed, in fact - Disney needs to provide one of its most enthusiastic audiences with another story to get their teeth into.
Hexed’s magical elements are, of course, another allegory for self-discovery, where extraordinary abilities show the main character who she actually is beneath her doubts and insecurities. That’s very Harry Potter again, but it’s also very much like the formula that underpins Elsa’s story in Frozen. In both cases, the familial mystery and the origin of the lead character’s powers are obviously also a key element of the story.
Like Frozen, Hexed is aiming squarely at the key young female demographic that turns million-dollar box office hauls into billion dollar ones (without alienating boys too much, of course). In this case, you can see the working a little more too, because when Hexed was first announced, it starred a young boy, rather than Steinfeld’s Billie. In business terms, it’s a smart move, with the closer parallel to Frozen (albeit with a modern world setting). Finger’s crossed it fairs better than Encanto did at first, and manages to tap into the Frozen audience properly.
Hexed is releasing in theaters worldwide on November 25.
Hexed
- Release Date
- November 25, 2026
- Director
- Jason Hand, Josie Trinidad, Fawn Veerasunthorn
- Producers
- Roy Conli, Yvett Merino Flores, Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster-Jones
-
Billie Doe (voice)
-
Queen Celeste (voice)
-
Beef Roger (voice)
-
Alice Doe (voice)
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.