1993 vs 2022! See the Hocus Pocus' Cast Then and Now
Some things never change. Hocus Pocus is back with an all-new sequel nearly 30 years after the original hit theaters, but the Disney+ movie cast says the biggest change is that the film actually has fans this time around.
“Even when it became a phenomenon, [a sequel] wasn’t considered,” Bette Midler told Entertainment Weekly for a feature published in early September. “Ten years on, when I started seeing the returns, I was surprised, and I started making calls. We got no interest at all, and a few years after that, I remember I needed the costume, and I asked the studio to loan it to me, but they couldn’t. My friend suggested that I go online, so I looked, and I was shocked because I’d never seen so much Hocus Pocus merch. I bought the costume, and I came as Winnie here and there, for this benefit or that benefit, and I realized there was something going on.”
The Emmy winner, 76, didn’t give up. “As I watched it progress, I’d call the studio once a year to ask, ‘How about it?’ It wasn’t until about three years ago that they advocated for it, and movement started,” Midler revealed. “It picked up when they decided that they wanted it to be on a streamer. They never looked back until they got their movie.”
The stars had no trouble finding their characters a few decades later. Doug Jones, who plays zombie Billy Butcherson, said it was shockingly easy to get back into the grave.
“Billy came back to me immediately, it was frightening how he’s been alive while I’ve been playing other characters all these years,” the Oscar winner told EW. “He was pretty decrepit to start with, and I [come] out of the grave looking exactly like two minutes have passed. I drank some formaldehyde. The prosthetics are the exact same, makeup artist, Tony Gardner … It was the exact same wig. They had it on a dummy on display for 29 years, they put it back on my head in the same style, it didn’t even need a touch-up.”
The original Hocus Pocus cast members who changed the most are the ones who were children when the franchise started — but they won’t return for the sequel. That includes Thora Birch, who played 8-year-old Dani Dennison. “I was just a little dismayed I wasn’t able to make it,” the actress, now 40, told Entertainment Tonight in September. “I was working on something else when they were filming … otherwise I was definitely going to be there on set with the girls.”
Only four cast members from the 1992 movie returned for Hocus Pocus 2. Scroll down to see how they’ve changed between films:
“Literally, it was so easy to slip back into our roles,” Midler told Parade in earlier this month. “It was like we just had gone out to lunch. We went right back with our characters in such a silly way. It was like no time had passed.” Shutterstock; Disney+
There's not a hint of Carrie Bradshaw here. Parker watched the original for the first time ever to get back into witch mode. “I was terrified because I can’t bear watching myself,” the Sex and the City star explained to Parade. “But I had to figure it out again, especially the physical movements. And it was actually fun!” Shutterstock; Disney+
"You'll see that Mary's mouth is now on the other side," Najimy told EW. "We can justify it because there's a scene at the beginning where Winnie slaps me, and my mouth goes to the other side, and then she slaps me again and it goes to the other side, and sticks. It's on the other side mainly because it's so hard for me to do it on the side I did it on 30 years ago. I'm sure the fans are going to go into deep detail about why it's on the other side." Shutterstock; Disney+
"The costume was rebuilt to be the same as the first one, so I looked exactly the same. It was so nostalgic for me to look in the mirror and go, 'You're 30-nothing years old again!'" the Shape of Water star quipped. Shutterstock; Disney+
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