Hocus Pocus 2 Reveals Sanderson Sisters’ Origins in Opening Minutes

Come, little children! Hocus Pocus 2 isn’t just bringing witches Winifred (Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), and Mary (Kathy Najimy) back from the dead — the 29-years-later sequel will conjure up the Sanderson Sisters’ origins in its opening minutes. The Disney+ Original movie, streaming September 30, begins with a flashback to 1600s New England and child versions of Winnie (Taylor Henderson), Sarah (Juju Journey Brener), and Mary (Nina Kitchen). And before former lover Winnie (Midler) sends him to his grave 300 years before the original 1993 Hocus Pocus, a younger, alive version of present-day zombie Billy Butcherson (Doug Jones) will also be making an appearance. 

“The opening sequence of the movie, we get some history of our witches and Billy. We get a little kiss — pardon the pun — of the Billy aspect of it and the world that they lived in and what happened to the witches,” director Anne Fletcher told EW. “I always missed that in the first one. Like, why are the witches the way they are? I did have that question, and the script came, and I loved the opening 1600s.”

Fletcher continued, “I pushed that a little bit more, because I really wanted to point at, ever so slightly…. the idea that the 1600s and the now are the same. There’s no difference. I just want to poke at the irony of it. But, in the joy of the film you get to see the young version of them and have a great time and understand the what and why of what happened to them.”

While the original trio of Max (Omri Katz), Dani (Thora Birch), and Allison (Vinessa Shaw) won’t be saving Salem a second time, there will be a new trinity of teens who will have to thwart the Sandersons when they’re once again resurrected in the present day. 

There will be “some wonderful surprises in the mythology” of the Sanderson Sisters who are “not witches in the beginning,” Fletcher revealed, adding the origin of the witches intertwines with the story of Becca (Whitney Peak), Izzy (Belissa Escobedo), and Cassie (Lilia Buckingham).

“[We] give each girl not only the same color in the vein of our witches — Becca [Peak] being Winnie, Izzy [Escobedo] being Mary, and Cassie [Buckinham] being Sarah — but their hairstyles in a way are similar. It’s a modern-day twist on it,” Fletcher said. “It’s the intention of playing into that. At the end of the day, the movie is about sisterhood, it’s about sticking together through thick and thin, and being there for one another.”

New cast members include Tony Hale as Salem Mayor Jefry Traske, Sam Richardson as Olde Salem Magic Shoppe owner Gilbert, Hannah Waddingham as the mysterious Witch, and RuPaul’s Drag Race queens Kahmora Hall, Ginger Minj, and Kornbread “The Snack” Jeté as modern-day drag versions of the Sanderson Sisters.

Disney describes Hocus Pocus 2: “It’s been 29 years since someone lit the Black Flame Candle and resurrected the 17th-century sisters who were executed for practicing witchcraft, and they are looking for revenge. Now it is up to three high-school students to figure out how to stop the ravenous witches from wreaking a new kind of havoc on Salem before midnight on All Hallow’s Eve.”

 Hocus Pocus 2 is streaming September 30 on Disney+.