Inside The Magic
Rupaul Drag Queen Accuses Disney of Intentionally Altering ‘Hocus Pocus 2’
By Alessia Dunn
January 26, 2024
Sistahs!, we have some Hocus Pocus news, and the drama is boiling out of the pot.
It appears RuPaul’s Drag Race icon Kornbread says Hocus Pocus 2 (coming off of the 1993 cult family film, Hocus Pocus) originally had a different queen scene. If you watched Hocus Pocus 2 after it dropped on Disney+, you know that the iconic Halloween Party starring the Sanderson Sisters happened again, but in a new way (to the tune of “One Way or Another”).
This time, years later, the Sanderson sisters were well-known, and residents of Salem would dress up as the three witches.
In the film, three drag queens, Kornbread, Ginger Minj and Kahmora Hall dressed as Winifred (Disney legend Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), and Mary (Kathy Najimy) in the costume contest. In the film we see that the original three witches end up beating the drag queens in the contest, but it was not always meant to be that way.
Reportedly, the fan-favorite queen Kornbread revealed to EW that “the original script for Disney’s Hocus Pocus 2 — in which she appeared opposite fellow RuGirls Ginger Minj and Kahmora Hall as drag versions of the Sanderson Sisters — included an alternate outcome for the queens.”
Kornbread stated, “Originally, the drag queens were supposed to win, and we did not win. If we won, there would be a possibility [we could come back for Hocus Pocus 3]; we can’t come back if we lost!”
The drag star continued, “They changed it through production writing. It was very close toward the start of filming because if you look at the costumes, we had the biggest lavish costumes while everybody else had Party City-looking costumes,” she says. “Our costumes were tailored to us. We got there, and they made the costumes for our bodies from scratch.
“Even Bette Midler was shocked about it,” Kornbread said. “She was looking, and she was like, ‘Why did they win? They look like the best ones!’”
According to Kornbread, it appears that Disney did not want to leave an opening for the three queens to return in Hocus Pocus 3. Disney has moved into a far more diverse mindset regarding their storylines and casting. Still, they have also been the target of a lot of backlash because of it, many fans of the company calling Disney “woke” with their decisions.
Will There Be a Hocus Pocus 3?
The witches will be back! In an interview with the New York Times, Walt Disney Pictures President Sean Bailey confirmed that there will be a Hocus Pocus 3, “Yes, Hocus Pocus 3 is happening.” The decision seems like a no-brainer, considering Hocus Pocus 2 broke the record for the most significant film premiere on Disney+.
As Deadline wrote, “Disney’s proper reading of tea leaves resulted in Hocus Pocus 2 bewitching the masses, with the movie not only the most-watched ever on Disney+ to date, but notching a Nielsen record for a streaming movie in its first weekend with 2.7 billion minutes views.”
“It was the simple idea of these three iconic characters returning,” says Disney Studios President of Marketing Asad Ayaz, “We started the campaign with the tagline ‘We’re Back, Witches.’ And that line served as the ultimate marketing hook for these three actresses returning 29 years later.”
Embracing a strategic theatrical marketing approach for Hocus Pocus 2, Disney collaborated with 11 promotional partners seamlessly integrated into the movie’s theme. Among these, Airbnb recreated the iconic cottage of the Sanderson sisters in Salem, Massachusetts, offering reservations during the film’s launch period.
Disney’s D23 club organized an exclusive Hocus Pocus 2 celebration in Salem for its members over the launch weekend. Walgreens, not just a promotional partner but also a featured entity in the film, had a custom spot and invested in paid digital media, in-store signage across its 9,000+ locations, and giveaways, further amplifying its connection with the movie.
Overall, Disney did a massive marketing push that resulted in success for the 2022 film, and we will likely see another in the future when the third film debuts.
