Hocus Pocus 2 features the return of the Sanderson sisters. In the follow-up to the 1993 classic, Bette Midler will reprise her role as Winnie, Sarah Jessica Parker will reprise her role as Sarah, and Kathy Najimy will reprise her role as Mary after being accidentally transported to modern-day Salem by three young girls, Becca (Whitney Peak), Cassie (Lilia Buckingham), and Izzy (Belissa Escobedo). The charming original trio and director Anne Fletcher sat together for a new interview with Entertainment Weekly to talk about reviving the Sanderson sisters. Midler said that Fletcher encouraged input from the cast, stating things like “You guys built these characters, you know how they talk and what they do or don’t do,” which were subsequently integrated into the screenplay.
Still, writing the script was the “most difficult” aspect. Najimy praised the team for being open to feedback, saying, “what the writer and studio came up with was difficult, because you can’t take something that was so successful and stray too far from it.” Parker described the challenge as “trying to figure out a story that everybody was excited about and that was familiar enough in tone to make sense, nod to the past, and pay tribute to a [the first film’s] whimsy, ridiculousness, evilness, and wickedness.” The world isn’t the same when the three witches return, but they keep loyal to character. Twenty-nine years have passed since they vanished, and the teaser shows how much Salem has evolved since then.
With regard to the Sanderson Sisters, Midler notes, “It’s become known. They exploit it, so the three girls who brought them back had been exposed to it all their lives; they are products of this new Salem, not helpless victims. Midler explains, “There are three young females that are quite fresh to the world. Even if they don’t now identify as witches, they have the potential to do so and join our ranks. This rivalry, which pits the young against the old, is a crowd-pleaser. Who will come out on top? Is there going to be a victor, or not?”
Fletcher elaborates this contrast through the film’s visual language, explaining, “We give each girl not only the same colour in the vein of our witches — Becca [Peak] being Winnie, Izzy [Escobedo] being Mary, and Cassie [Buckingham] being Sarah — and their hairstyles, in a way, are similar. It’s a modern twist on it…At the end of the day, the movie is about sisterhood, it’s Disney+ will debut the second instalment of “Hocus Pocus” on September 30.