Director Anne Fletcher explains that very strange universe-breaking Easter egg in Hocus Pocus 2. When Disney released Hocus Pocus in 1993, the Bette Midler-led Halloween film failed to win at the box office and earn the favor of critics. However, the film started to gain a cult following, and in the years since, it is now classified as a Halloween classic. Hocus Pocus, which is about three Salem-era witches who are brought back to life to run amok in the '90s, has been played over and over again on television, represented well during the season at Disney theme parks, and is one of Midler's favorite film roles.
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Many years after the first, a Hocus Pocus sequel entered production and was released on Disney+ in 2022. The new film reunites Midler, Kathy Najimy, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Doug Jones as their characters are brought back together for another night of Halloween mischief. Hocus Pocus 2 makes many callbacks and references to the first film, but one Easter egg left viewers scratching their heads and questioning the logic of the film. Halfway through Hocus Pocus 2, the Sandersons are searching for Mayor Traske, and Winnifred peeks through a window to see a couple watching the first Hocus Pocus. Specifically, the scene involving Garry and Penny Marshall, thus creating a strange plot hole.
Hocus Pocus 2 director Anne Fletcher now speaks to Entertainment Weekly about the film and goes in depth about that moment. Fletcher's main reason behind including the original movie was so that she could to honor the Marshalls in her own way. She explains:
I always knew I wanted to put some scene from [the] original movie on the TV, because I thought it would be fun and true to modern day Halloween, with fans always watching Hocus Pocus. My editor, Julia [Wong] and I landed on the cameo with Garry and Penny because it's one of the funniest parts of the movie, and their characters are so beloved by everyone — including myself — that it just felt right to put Garry and Penny in this movie.
How Hocus Pocus 2 Honors The Original Movie
In the same piece, Lilia Buckingham, who plays Cassie in Hocus Pocus 2, offers her own in-universe theory for why the clip from the first movie plays. Throughout the sequel, people are shown dressed up as the Sandersons in various semi-accurate costumes, and at one point a couple, identified as Fletcher and the film's costumer Salvador Perez, are seen dressed up as Garry and Penny Marshall's Hocus Pocus characters. Buckingham postulates that the events of Hocus Pocus were adapted into a movie in the film's universe and thus also became a cultural phenomenon.
While still an unusual Easter egg, Fletcher's explanation for that Hocus Pocus 2 television scene does add some sentimentality to it. The loss of Garry Marshall in 2016 and Penny Marshall in 2018 hit hard for many people, and despite having a small role in the original Hocus Pocus, they still left a big impact with their comedic scene. Buckingham's in-universe theory also adds to that warmth as it shows that even though critics and audiences failed to understand the film at the time, Hocus Pocus has received higher praise in later years and is welcomed every Halloween season with open arms. It has grown beyond its initial reception to become a very special thing, and Hocus Pocus 2 found plenty of ways to honor that.