Hannah Waddington’s Mother Witch to play big role in Hocus Pocus 3 teases writer

Have we finally gotten a hint at what to expect in the third entry in the Hocus Pocus franchise?

Last year we finally got Hocus Pocus 2, almost thirty years after the original movie, and now the third movie, as we reported previously (see below), is steaming ahead but, with the main cast, Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy, all getting that bit older, it had me wondering if perhaps we could be looking at a younger cast taking over, as hinted at in the flashbacks in the second movie when much younger actresses played the three Sanderson sisters – check them out here, they’re so good!.

And it seems that yes, that might just be the idea.

You see, in those flashbacks in the second movie, we also met Mother Witch, played by the always amazing Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddington, left, who seemed to have links to the sisters’ magic abilities and it seems that the third movie will be bringing her back in a big way.

“We’re still in the story phase, we’re still working on it,” screenwriter Jen D’Angelo says, “We’ve been working on some ideas. It’s been fun to dive back into that world and we have so many directions in which to go and so many new characters to explore. We’ve only scratched the surface of Hannah Waddingham’s mother witch.”

However, speaking about the sisters’ adult appearances, D’Angelo makes it clear that they’ll be there too: “We for sure want to see them again as adults.”

WATCH:All the way from D23, we have the full trailer for Hocus Pocus 2

She goes on: “I’m hoping that we are able to explore every aspect of these stories and take these characters on a bunch of fun adventures.

“We don’t really know what it is, but we’re exploring all options and I think everybody is so delighted by the reaction that ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ got, and we’re excited to continue those stories.”

However, it seems that she might have more of an idea that she’s letting on, regarding the plot… is Midler’s Winifred set to resort to her evil ways after what felt like redemption in the last movie?

“Yes, I have my theories about what we could see, and what things mean and where we could take these characters,” says D’Angleo.

“It’s interesting to be like, ‘Now we have even more possibility’ and it’ll be a challenge to sort of pick the avenue and really make the movie stand on its own. With the Sanderson sisters, the thing that makes them so fun is that they really are like herding cats. So I’m like ‘Yes, Winifred learned a very valuable lesson. She loves her sisters more than anything in the world.’ But she will also just immediately get distracted by whatever’s put in front of her.

“So if you dangle the carrot of a potential revenge against Salem, which she has always wanted, she might have a backslide where she gets singularly focused on the wrong goal again.”

Hocus Pocus 2 was beginning to look like it was never going to happen and when it did, three decades on, it was surprisingly good, in fact, it was pretty great and, with Halloween now upon us, it’s definitely getting watched tonight at FTN HQ.

Have you seen it? Did you like it? Let me know, gang.

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Hocus Pocus 3 in development at Disney, writer and director attached

Source: Variety