“Hocus Pocus” director addresses theory that Allison is a witch, reveals spinoff idea

Joey Nolfi
·3 min read
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Like a savory barrier sprinkled between forces of good and evil, many Hocus Pocus viewers have approached a long-standing fan theory with a grain of salt, that Vinessa Shaw's Allison might actually be a witch. Director Kenny Ortega exclusively tells EW that he, too, felt that Shaw's portrayal leaned into witchy territory, and it even inspired him to come up with an idea for a spinoff project at Disney.

Shaw played one of the film's three central children of 1993 Salem that fight back against the resurrected Sanderson Sisters, the witches played by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy. Though Ortega says he never spoke with Shaw about playing Allison as a witch, he recalls picking up on a hint of sorcery in her performance.

"I did feel the whole time that there was a little witch there," Ortega recalls. "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."

Hocus Pocus
Hocus Pocus

Disney Vinessa Shaw as Allison in 'Hocus Pocus.'

The spinoff project didn't work out, and Ortega maintains that he didn't address the witch angle with Shaw during production. However, he felt the script revealed Allison's powers in subtle ways.

"I thought she was bewitching as a teenage girl. It was not typical for Max to fall head-over-heels for her," the filmmaker adds. "She had a mystical beauty, and she was bewitching."

The theory began years after the film's initial release, partly because of a key scene that sees Allison sprinkle a canister of salt around her to ward off the witches. After she finishes, Winnie (Midler) calls her a "clever little white witch," leading many to believe that Allison was cut from the same spooky cloth.

Speaking of clothing, Shaw later revealed that Allison's jewelry and costuming hinted at elements of witchcraft.

"It was intentionally implied, for sure," she told The Wrap in 2022. "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. 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."

Vinesssa Shaw salt scene Hocus Pocus
Vinesssa Shaw salt scene Hocus Pocus

Disney+ Vinessa Shaw surrounds herself with Salt in 'Hocus Pocus'

Fans will perhaps get more answers about the Sanderson Sisters' origins when Disney unveils the third film in its Hocus Pocus series, as the studio announced earlier this year that it would develop Hocus Pocus 3 following the 2022 sequel's record-breaking run on Disney+.

Shaw did not return for the Anne Fletcher-directed sequel, nor did Omri Katz (Max) or Thora Birch (Dani). Though, the sequel's new trio of Salem teens (Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, Lilia Buckingham) exclusively revealed to EW that Dani initially appeared in an early version of the story.

"She was going to be our schoolteacher," Escobedo previously said. "I remember talking to Anne about it being a thing where she was our teacher, and we went to her for help."

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