Hocus Pocus Director Sets the Record Straight on Secret Witch Theory
The original Hocus Pocus filmmaker has long had an idea for a spinoff.
Hocus Pocus may be one of Disney's most popular franchises every Halloween, and the director of the original film says he has plenty of ideas for spin-offs should Disney come calling. One of those ideas is based on the notion Allison (Vinessa Shaw) harbors some magical genes. According to Kenny Ortega, he feels Shaw's performance evoked some serious witchy vibes; so much so, he even had conversations with the Disney Channel about a potential spin-off.
"I did feel the whole time that there was a little witch there," Ortega said in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. "I even thought there was potential for a spinoff that was about that, and I had conversations about that many years later at the Disney Channel."
The filmmaker added, "I thought she was bewitching as a teenage girl. It was not typical for Max to fall head-over-heels for her. She had a mystical beauty, and she was bewitching."
Shaw herself has said she's also felt Allison, one of the main characters to the original flick, could potentially be a witch.
"It was intentionally implied, for sure, because if you notice the necklace I'm wearing, it can kind of look like — because you don't see it, obviously, when I'm wearing the full ball gown — but later, when I'm just in the normal change of you know, jeans and the turtleneck and the sweater, you can see. And the necklace, it has kind of like a pentagram-looking design with the stones," Shaw said in a 2022 chat with TheWrap. "If you look really closely… it's a gold kind of locket, with white pearls connected to the locket, and it has a kind of design on it that could, if you kind of connected it all together, would have looked like a pentagram. But again, it was never explicit."
What is Hocus Pocus 3 about?
Though a spinoff featuring Allison is likely out of the cards now, Disney has pushed a third film into development. Though it has yet to be seen which characters will appear in the threequel, Bette Midler has said she'll absolutely return if asked.
"I'm envious of other actors who have franchises, and I was hoping for a sequel to First Wives Club, but we never got that. After 30 years with no sequel to Hocus Pocus, I've always been envious of people who get to do their favorite character more than once. The fact that we got to do this finally, after 30 years of promoting the idea, I'm glad we got to do it. I'd love to have a franchise — especially a character I love playing," Midler told EW last year. "If there was a third one, of course I'd sign on, but I don't know how. I can't imagine what the story would be, but I love Winifred, Sarah, Mary, and our relationship. It's good for women. We stick together through hell and high water, but we do cause mayhem, and not many women cause that much mayhem!"
Hocus Pocus and Hocus Pocus 2 are both streaming on Disney+. The third film in the franchise has yet to set a release date.
