Despite being a straight-to-streaming movie, Disney is throwing some real weight behind Hocus Pocus 2, its long-awaited sequel to the 1993 witch movie. Original stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and Bette Midler are all returning—despite the fact that one of them is Bette Midler—and earlier this month we heard that the always-great Sam Richardson had joined the cast as well.
Now, perhaps as a nod to the fact that today is Halloween (one of the top five spookiest days of the year), Disney has confirmed more of the cast of Disney+’s Hocus Pocus sequel. In addition to those four aforementioned people (Bette Midler!), Hocus Pocus 2 will feature Tony Hale, Hannah Waddingham, Whitney Peak, Lilia Buckingham, Belissa Escobedo, Juju Brener, Froy Guiterrez, Taylor Henderson, and Nina Kitchen. Doug Jones, who appeared in the original movie as the zombie Billy Butcherson, also announced that he’ll be returning, though the Disney+ tweet didn’t specifically call him out like it did with the main trio of witches.
Is Doug Jones not a household name? He should be! He was the fish-man in Shape Of Water and the fish-man in the Hellboy movies! In other news, Tony Hale was in Veep with Sam Richardson, and Sam Richardson was in Ted Lasso with Hannah Waddingham, so it clearly pays to know Sam Richardson. Maybe he’s the one who convinced Bette Midler to come back?
Hocus Pocus 2 has been penciled in for release on Disney+ next fall, but the fact that Disney hasn’t given a concrete date yet for such a Halloween-centric classic is kind of odd. Are they just trying to decide between releasing it on Halloween or releasing it a few weeks before to build up the spooky hype for Halloween? Or maybe they’ll drop it after Halloween because it’s going to be a Thanksgiving movie? We’ll find out next year.
