Sisters! The witches are back!

The Sanderson sisters didn’t have to wait another 300 years for resurrection this time around. (In fact, it’s closer to 30 years.) Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy return to reprise their witchy roles and have another go at sucking the lives out of all the children in Salem. But can a new trio of teens outmaneuver them in Hocus Pocus 2?

Despite premiering almost 30 years ago, the excitement for the original Hocus Pocus only seems to build and build in recent years. For many fans, it seemed like only a matter of time before Disney launched a sequel. But you might not have realized the person who’s been waiting longest of all – Midler herself.

“After I realized it was actually a phenomenon, I started asking people, don’t you think they would be interested in a sequel?” Midler said during a press conference for Hocus Pocus 2. “This was a long time ago, like 15 years ago, something like that. So it’s kind of a dream come true [to make the sequel].

Fellow witch Najimy said the ongoing love for Hocus Pocus has been a pleasant surprise, even though no one can peg a movie as a classic when they begin working on it.

“I don’t think that anyone could ever decide that ahead of time or else everybody would make that kind of movie. I think you just make films and you go on to the next one. And however the audience receives it is always a surprise,” said Najimy. “There was something in this film “Wizard of Oz-ish” where the generation shows it to their kids and shows it to their kids and shows it to their kids. So it becomes part of the fabric of the history of the family.”

Hocus Pocus 2

Many aspects of Hocus Pocus help weave the film into the fabric of our shared Halloween history. To this day, fans praise the humor, the story, and the spooky aesthetic of the film. But most of all, we all can’t help but love the Sandersons themselves.

“We talked a lot about sisterhood. About leaning on each other and counting on each other and loyalty to each other,” said Midler. “I think these three characters are really, in a strange and odd way, they’re 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… 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.”

“And there’s very little hesitance in our ideas and the things that we’re going to do,” adds Najimy, “We’re like, ‘this is what we have to get done.’ We’re gonna get it done, even if it’s eat children.”

Hocus Pocus 2 – as well as the original film – is now streaming on Disney+.

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Hocus Pocus 2 Brings Heart, Magic, and Music! [Review]