‘Hocus Pocus 2’ Stars Reveal Their Hopes for a Third Movie

Antonio Ferme

September 28, 2022 at 10:41 AM·4 min read

Slow and steady wins the race — and in the case of “Hocus Pocus 2,” the Sanderson sisters are returning to seek revenge on Salem after 29 years.

While Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy all reprise their roles as the three villainous witches in the sequel, there were some notable absences. For one, the main protagonists of the original film — Omri Katz’s Max Dennison and Vinessa Shaw’s Allison Watts — don’t appear in the movie.

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During the “Hocus Pocus 2” worldwide premiere on Tuesday in New York City, screenwriter Jen D’Angelo shed a light of hope that Max and Allison could return for a potential third installment.

“We tried so hard to get the original cast back for cameos and then it just kept not working out for one reason or the other,” D’Angelo told Variety. “But I’m hoping in ‘Hocus Pocus 3,’ we’ll see Max and Alison living in California.”

“Hocus Pocus 2” follows a new group of young teenagers that accidentally conjure the Sanderson sisters by reigniting the Black Flame Candle. This time around, the witches soar across the skies of Salem on a Swiffer and robot vacuum cleaners. Parker explained to Variety that the techniques to film the flying scenes were completely different.

“The technology is completely different, we’re not suspended in the same way,” Parker said. “Now, the technology is quite impressive, but it makes for shorter runs. You don’t tend to rest on the broom — or in my case, a Swiffer.”

Parker, who once recalled on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” how she would stay suspended on her broomstick during lunch breaks and read The New York Times, said that she couldn’t do that while filming the sequel due to safety concerns.

“I always have something to read, but it didn’t prove to be useful to have it because they would bring us down off the brooms so often,” Parker said. “They didn’t look on that very fondly because it’s not as safe this way, but it was still really fun. It was the thing we were looking forward to the most, for sure.”

Other aspects of production, like applying the zombified makeup for Billy Butcherson on actor Doug Jones, remained the same.

“As far as the effects going on me, the makeup process was exactly the same,” Jones told Variety. “They even used the same foam latex rubber sculpted prosthetics, the same kind of glue, same makeup artist Tony Gardner.”

Hundreds of cosplayers dressed as the Sanderson sisters gathered at the New York premiere and expressed their love for the classic Halloween film — but “Hocus Pocus” wasn’t initially a huge success for Disney. The original film made slim box office returns in 1993 — grossing $45 million worldwide on a $28 million budget, and it slowly gained popularity over the years on home video.

“[‘Hocus Pocus’] was a slow starter,” Najimy told Variety. “About a year after it came out on TV, parents showed it to their kids — and then those kids became parents and showed it to their kids. So it’s nothing you could ever imagine or geometrically figure out.”

Najimy continued, “It wasn’t anything that we expected that 30 years later that we would still have the support of these great fans who know every line and sing every song and dress up better than we looked.”

“Veep” star Sam Richardson, one of many newcomers to the franchise, identified himself as a “Hocus Pocus” fan and said that he understands the fanbase’s enthusiasm for the new film.

“This movie is so important to people,” Richardson told Variety. “It’s a movie unto itself, it’s its own genre of horror, comedy and family — I think [the sequel] carries on that legacy.”

Tony Hale, who plays the reverend of Salem in 1653 and the modern-day mayor, gave his two cents on the appeal of “Hocus Pocus.”

“It’s a huge fan base that really wanted, in my opinion, to bring the fun back to Halloween rather than the heavy horror aspect,” Hale told Variety. “People held onto that.”

If Disney greenlights a third “Hocus Pocus” film, executive producer Adam Shankman said that there are many other story threads that they could further explore.

“The low-hanging fruit is following the three new girls,” Shankman told Variety. “I think what happens is Tony Hale’s character gets hexed back into time and has to meet his ancestor and they have to interact together.”

Teenage star Whitney Peak also said that she’s “definitely” interested in exploring the magical powers that her character, Becca, discovers in the film.

“I feel like we haven’t gotten to use her magic too much,” Peak told Variety. “So we’re just gonna leave you guys hanging in there and hopefully, we’ll get to continue that story.”

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