There’s a new generation of wannabe witches in Hocus Pocus 2, out today on Disney+.
Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo and Lilia Buckingham join Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy in the scary-funny new sequel. Buckingham tells ABC Audio the 90s original was a staple in her house growing up.
“I watched it for the first time, I think, probably when I was about seven. It was one of the things that made me love Halloween in the first place,” she shares. “I think it’s just so comforting knowing that you have a movie that you can go back to, that you can kind of escape into, and it’ll always make you feel a certain way.”
That wasn’t the case for Peak, though, who admits she had “never seen the movie” before getting an audition, but decided to after hearing “it was this huge thing and everybody grew up watching it.”
“Then I watched the movie, completely understood, the energy was just so magnetic and it’s just a fun movie, and I can’t believe I didn’t watch it when I was younger,” Peak says.
It’s been almost 30 years since the first Hocus Pocus was released, and director Anne Fletcher says that taking on a cult classic was “terrifying.” Ultimately, though, she hopes fans of the original are pleased.
“The whole movie is an homage to the first one, because you can’t ignore the first one. It’s there for the taking,” she says. “And so all we’re doing is continuing the story of our Sanderson sisters with new cast members and having fun and winking at the audience of like, we’re here with you, like, let’s have fun.”
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