The kids from the original Hocus Pocus explain why they weren’t in the sequel: “Such a rollercoaster ride”

Last year, Disney+ brought the infamous Sanderson sisters back to big success with Hocus Pocus 2, but the kids who beat them in the original 1993 cult classic didn’t come back with them. The actors who played them just revealed why.

At a 90s conference in Hartford, Connecticut, original Hocus Pocus stars Omri Katz, Thora Burch, Vinessa Shaw, and Jason Marsden appeared on the panel and discussed the absence of their characters. In the original film, Katz and Burch played Max and Dani Dennison, two siblings who, along with Max’s classmate, crushed Allison (Shaw) by accidentally resurrecting Sanderson’s witches. Three children must find a way to defeat the coven with the help of Thackery Binks (Marsden), a teenage boy who was turned into an immortal cat by the Sandersons 300 years earlier.

Birch said that ten years ago there were ideas about how to bring back Max, Dani, Allison and Binks in the Hocus Pocus sequel. But then a lot of different writers and different directors joined us, so the story, the concept, and the direction they wanted to take also continued to evolve, change, and grow,” she said.

“I know there were some concepts along the way and some ideas on how to bring us back. And for some reason it just didn’t work,” Burch continued. “Some of us were going to participate, some of us were not. And then it was just a rollercoaster ride.

Marsden said he spoke to David Kirshner, the producer of the original Hocus Pocus, and learned that he insisted that Max, Dani and Allison return as adults in the sequel.

“He said he was trying to fight, especially for the three of you,” Marsden said. But there is a committee. This is a team. Now it is IP – intellectual property. It’s close to your hearts, but now it belongs to the committee. And so they have to make the right decisions.”

Eventually, Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy returned to play the Sandersons in Hocus Pocus 2, resurrected nearly 30 years after meeting the Dennisons, coming face to face with a new trio of teenagers who accidentally resurrected them. . The film set a new viewing record for Disney+ for total hours watched in its first weekend of release, beating the record set by Pixar’s “Blushing” seven months prior.