Omri Katz has claimed the original stars of 'Hocus Pocus' "weren't invited" to be part of the sequel.
Only the Sanderson Sisters were back in the Hocus Pocus sequel
The 46-year-old actor starred as teenager Max Dennison in the 1993 fantasy movie and while Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy reprised their roles as a trio of witches known as the Sanderson Sisters in last year's follow-up, he has claimed many of the original cast members weren't involved in any discussions about the project.
Omri reunited with Thora Birch, Vinessa Shaw, and Jason Marsden for a panel discussion at a 1990s-themed fan convention over the weekend and the group were asked why they weren't involved in the sequel.
Omri said: "We weren't invited to that meeting. So we don't really know why we weren't invited.
"I think the fan base really wanted to see something with us. ... Yeah, I don't know. It's hard to really figure out the decisions that are made regarding what they want to do."
But Thora explained having them return "was something that was discussed" but the process of the sequel "being brought about was so long" and so many changes were made.
She said: "The desire [and] the concept of maybe doing [a sequel] was about 10 years. But then there were numbers of different writers that came on board and different directors, and so the story and the concept and the direction in which they wanted to take, too, kept evolving and changing and growing.
"I do know that there were, along the way, some concepts and some ideas about ways to bring us back. And for whatever reason, it just didn't work," she continued. "Some of us were going to be on, some of us weren't. And then it just was such a roller coaster ride.
"What we like to say in the business: we had scheduling conflicts."
Jason suggested he hadn't been too disappointed not to be asked back even though he had had conversations with creator and producer David Kirschner because he has "been in this business long enough to not get your hopes up about anything, really."
He said: "I did speak with Mr. David Kirschner. He said he did try to fight to get you three especially.
"But there's a committee. It's a team. It's an IP now — intellectual property. It's close to your hearts, but it belongs to a committee now. And so it's left up to them to make the right decisions."
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