During today’s Disney Live Action, Pixar Animation Studios, and Walt Disney Animation Studios presentation at the D23 Expo 2022, the company showed a clip from the upcoming feature length live-action adapation of fan-favorite theme park ride the Haunted Mansion, arriving in 2023. Not only was the clip full of the happy haunts Disney fans have come to love over the years – Hitchhiking Ghosts, Hatbox Ghost, and even Constance – but also a surprise appearance from the “Queen of Scary Movies” herself, Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween Ends), who will be appearing in the movie as Madame Leota.


Fans who attended the Disney Live Action, Pixar Animation Studios, and Walt Disney Animation Studios presentation were treated to a clip of the Haunted Mansion film starring Rosario Dawson as Gabbie, a single mother; Lakeith Stanfield as Ben Matthias, a widowed scientist-turned failed-paranormal expert; Tiffany Haddish as Harriet, a psychic; Danny DeVito as a college history professor; and Owen Wilson as Kent, a priest (but he’s not a regular priest, he’s a Wild Wild West priest with a lucky crucifix). The clip was also a first look at characters that Disney fans already know from the Haunted Mansion ride, first introduced in Disneyland in 1969, willl be Jared Leto, who is voicing Alistair Crump/Hatbox Ghost and Jamie Lee Curtis as Madame Leota, who seems to have an underground lair located below the spookiest mansion in the park (and her lair is decked out in Doom Buggie-inspired chairs).

Haunted Mansion director Justin Simien also teased during the presentation a string of other exciting actor cameos who will be appearing in the upcoming Haunted Mansion film: Winona Ryder, Dan Levy, Hasan Minhaj.

Justin Simien Used to be a Cast Member

“For me, there was something about that ride I felt was there in the script,” Simien said as he introduced Jamie Lee Curtis, who arrived at the Hall23 stage in Doom Buggie, along with the other cameo announcements. “It was funny and full of interesting characters, but with a dark edge to it. I just related to it. It felt I knew how to make it. I love New Orleans and I felt I had a responsibility here to make sure all the little Easter eggs are there.”

“I actually used to work at Disneyland,” he said to thunderous applause from all the other former cast members. “I actually used to have hair, and it was the best summer job I ever had. And anytime I wasn’t working on the ride I was supposed to, I’d ride Pirates and my favorite ride, Haunted Mansion.”