We’re getting a behind-the-scenes look at the forthcoming Disney sequel Hocus Pocus 2, with actors from that film being spotted in real life, decked out in their best witch attire, and taking to the skies like witches tend to do.
The newest glimpse comes to us from an Instagram account called Hocus Pocus Guide and features Sarah Jessica Parker’s Sarah Sanderson and Bette Midler’s Winifred Sanderson taking flight on a Swiffer and traditional broom respectively (though it is unclear if the people in the clip are the actors themselves or their stunt doubles). The segment was reported to be an on-location filming from Rhode Island.
The film, currently under production, has an expected release date in 2022 exclusively on Disney Plus.
A follow up to the fan favorite 1993 Halloween comedy Hocus Pocus, this long-awaited sequel centers around three young women who accidentally summon the trio of witches known as the Sanderson Sisters to modern-day Salem, Massachusetts, where they unsurprisingly wreak havoc. It’s now up to the young women to put the genie back in the bottle, as it were, and stop the child-hungry sister trio from inflicting any further damage onto the world.
Though nearly three decades have passed since the first film’s initial release, it’s somewhat promising to see that director Anne Fletcher is engaging in at least a little bit of practical wire work with the actors to make the witches go airborne, despite the advancement of computer effects since the first film’s release likely being an easy-way-out temptation for modern filmmakers.
Indeed, the first film was something of a special effects marvel at the time, with the talking cat Binx having a fully rendered computer-graphics head based on a plaster model in order to bring the illusion to life that he could speak. That aspect of the Kenny Ortega-directed original film surprisingly holds up pretty well, even to this day.
We’ll have to see what tricks and treats are in store for fans when Hocus Pocus 2 comes to Disney Plus in 2022.