Hocus Pocus 2 is a 2022 American fantasy comedy film directed by Anne Fletcher, written by Jen D’Angelo and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is a sequel to the 1993 film Hocus Pocus and the second installment in the Hocus Pocus franchise. The film stars Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and Doug Jones reprising their roles, with Sam Richardson, Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, Tony Hale, and Hannah Waddingham joining the cast in new roles.
Filming took place from October 2021 to January 2022 in Rhode Island, replacing Salem, Massachusetts. It was released on Disney+ on September 30, 2022.[4] The film received mixed reviews, with praise for the cast performances, humor, and nostalgia, but criticism of the plot. It earned three nominations at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Television Movie. A third film is in development, with Anne Fletcher and Jen D’Angelo returning as director and screenwriter, respectively.
In 1653 Salem, Massachusetts, Reverend Traske banishes 16-year-old Winifred Sanderson after she ‘defied church authority’ by refusing to marry John Pritchett. Rather than be away from her sisters, Mary and Sarah, Winnie takes them to a nearby forest. There, they meet with Mother Witch, who gives Winifred a magic, human-skin-bound book, with a living eyeball embedded in the cover, for her birthday; she also explicitly warns the trio against ever casting the Magicae Maxima spell, which makes the user ‘all-powerful’. Mother Witch also teaches the trio how to keep their youth, using children. The sisters get revenge on the Reverend by cursing his home, which is engulfed in flames.
In 2022, 29 years after the sisters were resurrected by the Black Flame Candle, local Salem teenagers Becca and Izzy prepare to celebrate Halloween and Becca’s 16th birthday, but turn down a party invite from their former friend, Cassie Traske. Becca and Izzy visit a magic shop, housed in the Sandersons’ former cottage; the owner, Gilbert, gives Becca a candle for an annual birthday that it is another Black Flame Candle. As there is a full moon, and the girls are both virgins, the candle resurrects the Sanderson sisters, yet again. The girls outwit the sisters in a local Walgreens and flee to the magic shop, where they find that Gilbert tricked them into reviving the witches, having seen them on Halloween in 1993 and having read how to make the candle in the spell book.
