Gizmodo
11 Magical Facts About Hocus Pocus 2 From the Cast and Creative Team
By Sabina Graves
September 30, 2022
The Sanderson Sisters are back! Hocus Pocus 2 is now streaming on Disney+, just in time for pumpkin spice season and repeat viewings in the lead-up to Halloween. io9 recently participated in the press conference for the film with the cast and creative team to discuss the making of the movie and why it took 29 years to get here.
They Lit The Black Flame Candle – Hocus Pocus 2
Thanks to whoever cast the summoning spell and lit the black candle flame, Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy reunited as the Sanderson Sisters. It makes so much sense in the era of legacy sequels—but in reality, it took 15 years to start the ball rolling. Midler said, “This was kind of a dream come true, it really was. I mean, I’ve been—I don’t want to say agitating, but after I realized it was actually a phenomenon, I started asking people around my age ‘don’t you think they would be interested in a sequel?’ I do love a franchise.” Then she added, “I think I’m a little elderly for a franchise at this point. But I’ll take what I can get.”
Cult Hits Have a Special Power – Hocus Pocus 2
Najimy credits the cult success of Hocus Pocus on it becoming an annual Halloween viewing tradition passed down from the generation that grew up with it. “I think there was something in this film, I think, like Wizard of Oz, where the generation shows it to their kids and shows it to their kids and shows it to their kids,” she explained. “So it becomes part of the fabric of the history of the family.”
The Music Is Spellbinding – Hocus Pocus 2
Director Fletcher on her mission being the story and honoring the first film: “[I’m] making sure that I’m honoring these characters for the fans and bringing it into a new generation. The musical numbers are there for the story. As I like to say, I didn’t feel like I could compete with [the first movie’s version of] ‘I Put a Spell on You,’ which Bette and Marc Shaiman wrote. And I mean, there was an original song. [They] did the arrangement and the lyrics. I can’t compete with that, so I didn’t try. We stayed focused on trying to stay more towards the story. And we just had so many fun songs to choose from. And that’s where we landed. And who doesn’t want to see Bette Midler sing?”
Zombies Never Die – Hocus Pocus 2
“I was a zombie before zombies were cool, you know,” character actor Doug Jones quipped about returning to portray Billy Butcherson. “And I was not a brain-eating zombie. That’s a big difference. I just wanted to go back to sleep. That’s all I want. I don’t want to eat anything. I just want to be left alone, ” he said, playing Winnie’s ill-fated lover in the first Hocus Pocus.
Halloween Is the Best Holiday – Hocus Pocus
Belissa Escobedo (who will star in DC’s Blue Beetle) is no stranger to spooky shenanigans, having previously been featured in American Horror Stories before taking on the role of Izzy. In fact, she loves them. “I mean, Halloween is the best holiday. Aside from that, I just have always loved spooky Halloween movies because I feel like it can be extremes on both ends. And then you also see campiness and how it can be fun,” she said about going into the silly supernatural hijinks of Hocus Pocus 2. “And I think it’s amazing that you have one end of horror and this end of camp. And they all bridge together in the same genre and come collectively to celebrate this fun holiday.”
As Izzy, Escobedo co-leads as a young witch who sides with her friend on her 16th birthday when Cassie ditches them for a boy (things get a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the bare bones of it). “I just admire that she just has this, like, blind loyalty to these girls, [and] will do anything for them, no questions asked—totally would go against three evil witches.”
Her power in the group is similar to Mary Sanderson’s. Najimy jumped in to affirm what makes Izzy so unique: “You also have a lot of self-assuredness. It wasn’t like you were just a lackey. You were very focused.”
A Role for a Fan – Hocus Pocus 2
“You know, as a fan of the movie itself, this was directed right at me. I’ve been a fan of the movie since it was in theaters,” admitted actor Sam Richardson (The Afterparty). “To get to be in the movie as a fan of the movie from growing up, and watching these three [Hocus Pocus icons] and watching myself, it’s so many levels of inception. It’s very meta,” he said of getting to play Salem Magic Shop owner and Sanderson Sisters fanboy Gilbert.
Richardson even took the movie role without meeting Fletcher—he loves Hocus Pocus that much. “My whole career was just a plan to get into the movie, and I did. I saw the first movie in the theater. And my reaction was like, I’m going to be in that,” he joked. But we have a hunch that you may not have been kidding if you’ve seen Werewolves Within (if you haven’t, you must), which shares a horror-comedy vibe but is way more violent.
Modern Friendships – Hocus Pocus 2
Buckingham, who plays Cassie, also spiritually feels like an homage to Sarah Sanderson: she has great love for her sisters, or her best friends in this case, but it gets complicated when a guy catches her eye. Buckingham described the bond Cassie has with Becca and Izzy: “We have this love for each other and this friendship, but I mean, every teen knows what it’s like to go through a rough patch with your friends. And to have your first boyfriend or girlfriend figure it out. I think she is a perfect example of misstepping and inability to figure it out until she communicates with her best friends. And that’s just the realest thing I’ve ever heard. We’ve all been through that.”
A New Coven – Hocus Pocus 2
Hocus Pocus 2 explores dueling covens who soon realize they’re more alike than they think. “I think there is an interesting parallel of the older witches, but also the three of us, [who come from] three completely different walks of life and personality and individuality,” Peak, who plays the modern coven leader-in-training, shared. “And then just kind of finding this bond where you can be selfless and completely comfortable with each other. Becca [has a strong] sense of valuing the people that she keeps around her. She has a core friend group and no matter what happens, she eventually gets to [make] sure that she has her sisters behind her the entire time.”
Sanderson Sisterhood – Hocus Pocus 2
Midler echoed the sentiment of powerful bonds that she got to revisit with Parker and Najimy. “Well, we talked a lot about sisterhood. And we talked a lot about leaning on each other and counting on each other and loyalty to each other. There’s so much going on in this world that we never really realized until maybe the last 25, 30 years, maybe 50 years—things have changed for women, but things have not changed fast enough for women.”
According to its star, the film speaks to multiple generations of witches. “I think these three characters are, in a strange and odd way, really quite positive for women. First of all, they’re very funny, which women are not allowed to be—are not supposed to be. And they’re intensely loyal to each other. It’s a very broad range of emotions that they live through. I think in a funny way, their bond is very, very strong. So in any situation where women are together, a bond of friendship and sisterhood is really, really important. And then this movie sort of shores it up.”
Najimy piped in to back her sister up. “And there’s very little hesitation in our ideas and the things that we’re going to do. We don’t sit and we’re like, ‘this is what we have to get done,” she said, before joking, “We’re gonna get it done, even if it’s eat children. Whatever it is that our mission is, there’s not a lot of second-guessing which I don’t think you see a lot.”
Spooky Costume Design – Hocus Pocus 2
Fletcher on recreating the look of the original film down to the iconic costumes, which unfortunately didn’t make it back to this production: “Some of [the clothes] deteriorated. They are in a museum in Seattle, Washington but they’re in terrible shape. So we had to start from scratch. And I thought really way outside of the bubble—like you know how all these big superhero movies change everything up. At the end of the day, Lynn and I had these conversations with [costume designer] Sal Pérez Jr about just staying true to what their witches’ clothes were, [and] give it new material. The symbols on all three of the witches outfits, especially Bette’s, mean something. It’s sort of now modern-day Wicca. But in the 1600s, that version of witchcraft which was tethered to the earth, the ocean, the stars, it’s all tied together. It’s all reflected in Winifred’s cloak.”
Really, It Was All Destined – Hocus Pocus
Executive producer Adam Shankman shared his personal connetction to the first film. “I was actually privileged enough in a very weird way to come and visit the set of the original Hocus Pocus. I remember my first day there was one of the flying scenes outside the cottage. It was incredibly magical at the time,” he said. He recalled how that experience, where he made friends with the cast and creative team, got him to say “yes” to the sequel. “A lot of it had to do with ‘Can I just please do something with my friends?’ And because you make new friends in every project that you do, hopefully. This time, this period of our lives has been incredibly isolating. And I hadn’t gotten to see people I know and love in a really long time. And so to be able to have the opportunity to be forced together [laughes] was really, really special to me.”
Hocus Pocus 2 is now streaming on Disney+.