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3 Plots I Predict for the Disney Plus HOCUS POCUS Reboot

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Shireen Hakim

Staff Writer

Shireen Hakim is the author of the award-winning refugee story "Rabbi the Rabbit" in the anthology OUT OF MANY, ONE: CELEBRATING DIVERSITY. She is a Contributing Writer for We Need Diverse Books. She has written for HelloGiggles and NaNoWriMo blog. Shireen has a writing certificate from Stanford University Online.

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Spoiler alert! This post talks about some new major Hocus Pocus plot points! Read ahead at your own risk, if you have not yet read Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel.

book coverIn general, I am wary of reboots, but I do enjoy one every now and then. So while there has been talk of a Hocus Pocus reboot for years, I have not held my breath. However, I was immediately drawn to the YA novel Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel, which Disney released with Freeform Books to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the beloved Bette Midler–starring film. The New York Times bestseller directly follows the events and characters of the movie 25 years later (in 2018).

I love the book cover, with the colorful yet shadowy silhouettes of the infamous Sanderson sisters, and the neon, ghostly font title. I definitely enjoyed reading “Part Two Now” of the book, which introduces Max and Allison’s 17- year old daughter (and Dani’s niece) Poppy, her sarcastic sidekick Travis, and her popular friend Isabella. (You can skip “Part One Then,” it’s basically a word-for-word rendition of the movie, which we’ve all memorized at this point.)

I definitely enjoyed the book, with its unexpected twists, scary surprises, and cool new characters. Right off the broom I will say the cliffhanger is legendary!

Now, like many others, I’m anxiously awaiting updates on the Hocus Pocus sequel on Disney +, to no avail. To be clear, I don’t know anything about it. I don’t even know what year it will come out! However, I am willing to predict the reboot will pick up where they left off at the end of the book.

Here are my 3 predictions for the Hocus Pocus reboot:

  1. Moms versus moms: So Winifred’s (and Sarah’s and Mary’s) mom shows up in the sequel! She is even more vicious than Winifred! She is described as petite, but dang she scared me through the pages! I got goosebumps while I read her part, and I was relieved when she disappeared (back to hell.) But I have a feeling, or hope, that she will be conjured back up, and this time Allison will throw down with her. In Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel, Allison was ready to save the whole town from any witches, and I think her pent-up frustrations will be unleashed on the matriarch witch. It will be cute, because Allison was so badass in the original movie, while Max was kind of a wild chicken, so I would like to see her relive those moments.
  2.  Highway to Hell: One of the teens (or the entire trio?) may have to delve down to hell to rescue the missing girl! At the end of the sequel, it’s Halloween 2019 and there is still one witch left in Salem! That person glances at a MISSING sign of a teen girl and snarkily thanks her for giving him/her a spot on earth. My prediction is the three kids are the only ones brave enough to rescue the girl. We’ll see a scary but wacky version of Hell that the kids have to endure to save their classmate.
  3. Elizabeth Saves the Day. One of the new characters in the Sequel is Elizabeth, the fourth and innocent Sanderson sister. She was pretty pissed to find out her mom had tricked her all those years. She didn’t get a chance to settle the situation, so I feel like she is going to make a come back, to confront her mom and help protect the kids again.

If you’ve read the book, then you probably have some ideas about the reboot, so please fill me in. Also, I’m not completely sure I understood the last few pivotal pages, so correct me if needed.