The Sanderson sisters are returning to put another spell on you. After nearly 30 years, Disney is finally making Hocus Pocus 2, the long-awaited sequel to the 1993 Halloween favorite. After a couple of years of updates, we learned in May that it’s headed to Disney Plus in October 2022. We’ll see Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker reprise their roles as Winifred, Mary and Sarah Sanderson, the trio of resurrected Salem witches who must consume the souls of children to stay alive.
So far, the leading ladies are the only confirmed cast members, but The Illuminerdi has got hold of some new character details that tell us the shape of the sequel’s plot. As per the outlet, the protagonist is “Becca,” a loner high schooler and aspiring witch who gets her hands on another Black Flame Candle at the local magic shop (AKA the Sandersons’ old cottage). Along with oddball classmate “Izzy,” Becca accidentally summons the witches on Halloween night, leading to chaos across Salem.
Other characters include “Giles,” the owner of the magic shop, “Cassie,” a popular girl and bully to Becca, and “Sam,” a classmate of the girls and a wannabe magician who works at Giles’ shop and has a crush on Becca. There’s also “Luann,” Becca’s kind and cheerful stepmother who’s described as “an outsider in her own right.”
Thora Birch created some buzz the other month with a tweet that seemed to tease she could be coming back for HP2. This is corroborated by The Illuminerdi who may have revealed the nature of her role. Birch will apparently appear in a cameo as Dani Dennison, who is now the high school principal and will have an “interesting run in” with Midler’s Winifred.
This is all yet to be officially announced, but it does mostly gel with what we’ve heard before about the movie. Expect more to come out about Hocus Pocus 2 as we near its production start this October.