Hold onto your broomsticks and vacuum cleaners: Hocus Pocus 2 is officially in the works! Disney has lit the black candle for the Sanderson sisters, announcing a sequel to the 1993 classic will be launched on streaming service Disney+.
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Although it’s unclear whether the original trio of witches (played by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy) will be reincarnated in the new project, Disney are keen to re-cast the stars, according to Variety.
There’s also no word whether if the film will star Omri Katz, who played Max, the teen who accidentally resurrects the centuries-old witches bent on sucking the souls of children to stay young forever. In fact, Disney’s announcement came with no hint of what a sequel story could involve.
However, we have three ideas for plots bubbling away in our cauldron.
You’re welcome, Disney.
The witches become undercover pop stars
Look, we don’t know exactly how this can happen – we’re guessing some magic from Winnie’s spellbook does the trick – but we want to see the Sanderson witches (played by Midler, Jessica Parker and Najimy once more, obviously) becoming pop sensations.
Why? Remember that scene where Winifred curses a whole party to dance and sing to I Put a Spell on You until they die? Well, the witches' plan could be to become the next big girl group before unleashing the spell on the entire world.
Not only devilishly evil, but such a plot could invite plenty of pop cameos. Who wouldn’t want to see Taylor Swift as a secret witch?
Max’s daughter come up against the Sanderson sisters again
Disney
We should come clean now: this isn’t our idea. It is, however, the story put forward in Hocus Pocus & The All-New Sequel, the film’s follow-up novel.
The book is set 25 years after the original movie, featuring the adult versions of Max and Allison (his love interest played by Vinessa Shaw in the original movie). However, it’s their 17-year-old daughter Poppy that is the main focus: to impress a girl she has a crush on, Poppy returns to the Sanderson house on Halloween, lights the black candle and the witches materialise once again.
Cue the McGuffin of the story: the moonstone. It’s an object that, if the witches get hold of, could unleash a powerful evil spell that could destroy not only the town of Salem, but the world. And it’s up to Poppy and her friends to stop them.
A new batch of witches returns to haunt Salem
Although most fans will want to see the original witches back again, there’s every chance Disney will want a new cackling trio to wow audiences. But who could play them? Our hope: Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone.
As we saw in The Favourite, the three can play some incredibly horrible yet hilarious characters.
They’d want to team up again. We’d want to see it. It’s a win-win.
The new witch squad could even be some relation to the original trio, thus giving them a revenge motive to destroy the town of Salem. Dost thou comprehend how much we want to see this?
Thomas is Digital editor at BBC Science Focus. Writing about everything from cosmology to anthropology, he specialises in the latest psychology, health and neuroscience discoveries. Thomas has a Masters degree (distinction) in Magazine Journalism from the University of Sheffield and has written for Men’s Health, Vice and Radio Times. He has been shortlisted as the New Digital Talent of the Year at the national magazine Professional Publishers Association (PPA) awards. Also working in academia, Thomas has lectured on the topic of journalism to undergraduate and postgraduate students at The University of Sheffield.
