The famous Hocus Pocus movie came out in 1993. The movie was a fairly popular film, winning Saturn Award for Best Costume Design. Twenty-nine years later in 2022, Disney+ released Hocus Pocus 2.

Although first-movie characters Max Dennison (Ormi Katz), Dani Dennison (Thora Birch), and Allison Watts (Vinessa Shaw) are not returning to the second film, Winifred Sanderson (Bette Midler), Sarah Sanderson (Sarah Jessica Parker), Mary Sanderson (Kathy Najimy), and Bill Butcherson (Doug Jones) have all returned to the screen. There are characters that did not physically return, yes, but there are connections from the second movie that originated from the first. 

Thora Birch explained her character’s disappearance in the second film to Entertainment Tonight, “There were three options we had for how to bring Dani back, all of which I was excited by. But by the time they got around to filming, I was already on something else.” According to one of the newest actors in the franchise, Dani was originally scripted to be the students’ teacher that they rushed to for help. As for Max and Allison, the director of Hocus Pocus 2 – Anne Fletcher – revealed it was just difficult to fit the two of them into the storyline. 

Even though the original three children did not return to the second film, everyone was excited for the Sanderson sisters to return to their screens in a new fashion. This movie truly came back full-throttle and made lovely connections with the first film. “I enjoyed the movie and felt like it was a nice add-on to the first movie. I miss the original characters though, but all good things must come to an end,” Sarah Corson said.

As shown above, many people are enjoying the debut of Hocus Pocus 2. The movie has been rated 62% on Rotten Tomatoes, 56% on Metacritic and 6.2/10 on IMDb. If you’re looking for a good Halloween movie, this might be your pot of gold.