It’s all just a bunch of hocus pocus! If you haven’t already heard, our favourite sisters are back in the long-awaited sequel to the Nineties Disney classic Hocus Pocus with Hocus Pocus 2.
Now, to celebrate the release of the first real look into the movie with the teaser trailer (below), we’ve gathered together everything we know about the sequel so far…
First, a little background…
Directed by Kenny Ortega (who also directed another 90s Disney classic, Newsies) and written by Neil Cuthbert and Mick Garris, Hocus Pocus was released in 1993.
It followed three 17th-century sisters witches Winifred, Sarah, and Mary (played by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy) who are inadvertently resurrected by a virgin teenage boy Max (Omri Katz) in Salem, Massachusetts, on Halloween night.
The movie also starred a young Thora Birch as Max’s sister Dani, and genre stalwart Doug Jones as Billy Butcherson (in fact, we spoke to the pair of them a few years ago about their roles). It wasn’t a commercial success but subsequent home video viewings has secured the movie as a cult classic.
What’s the new movie about?
Hocus Pocus 2 takes place 29 years after the first movie and the Sanderson sisters are looking for revenge. Now it is up to three high-school students to stop the ravenous witches from wreaking a new kind of havoc on Salem before dawn on All Hallow’s Eve…
So, are any of the original cast back for the sequel?
Yes they are! Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy are back as the Sanderson sisters and so is Doug Jones! We know that Thora Birch won’t be back as she’s busy filming the Wednesday series for Netflix, though there is no word if Katz will return.
Who’s joining the original cast?
They will be joined by Whitney Peak (Gossip Girl), Lilia Buckingham (Dirt), Belisa Escobedo (American Horror Stories), Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso), Tony Hale (Veep), Sam Richardson (The Tomorrow War), Juju Brener (Vanquish), Froy Gutierrez (Teen Wolf), Taylor Paige Henderson and Nina Kitchen.
What about behind the scenes?
We have another impressive trio of women behind the new movie. It is being directed by 27 Dresses and The Proposal’s Anne Fletcher, from a script written by Jen D’Angelo who’s mainly written for TV so far with Workaholics and Young Rock. It is produced by King Richard’s Lynn Harris.
When and how can we watch Hocus Pocus 2?
Hocus Pocus 2 will be available to stream exclusively on Disney+ beginning 30 September.
