Summerween Was in Full Effect During the Hocus Pocus Panel at Fan Expo Chicago 2026

Julian Ramirez
49 minutes ago
2 min read

The Halloween season just seems to be coming earlier and earlier with every passing year and honestly you won't hear me complaining. That was certainly the vibe for everyone at the Hocus Pocus panel at this year's Fan Expo when the packed crowd asked the panel of Thora Birch, Omri Katz, Vinessa Shaw, and Jason Marsden what they though of the Summerween phenomena and if they were all spookygirlies.

"Well I think we kinda started it." they responded as the crowd cheered their approval, although they were unsure of the definition of spookygirlies.

Hocus Pocus was released way back in July 1993 and its staying power has been amazing, even if the initial box office response wasn't as big as the studio expected. But as is the case for many 90s releases, home video can take a disappointing showing at the theaters and make it into a decades long sensation. The four cast members all seemed very appreciative of that, and seeing as how the hall was in standing room only, Hocus Pocus isn't going anywhere.

The panel was filled with fun stories of on set shenanigans, which most remembered but flew over Birch's head in a few spots. She was only 10 or11 when the filming was taking place, so a lot of the memory sharing came through the rest of the cast.

When panels have such a devoted crowd, it's easy for fun stories to have legs and become running jokes throughout the short time we have with the cast. Shaw shared a story about how she almost had to wear the gown featured in one scene in the film for the entire runtime before a rewrite happened.

"It would have been yabbos everywhere" she exclaimed, much to the delight of her costars and crowd.

She mention how she would see the dress in other films over the years, quietly thinking to her self "return of the yabbos".

The topic of troublesome cats came up, and James Marsden, voice of Binx, wished that someone, anyone would name their cat "James Marsden." "Not just James, but James Marsden, the whole thing! " And boy did his eyes light up when one crowd member said they had gotten a black cat specifically because of him, thinking the cat was actually named "James Marsden, " but alas, it was another Binx.

While most of the question focused on the movie at hand, I was delited to hear someone bring up Eerie, Indiana a surreal/way ahead of its time TV show featuring Omri and Jason. Both actors praised the series finally as their favorite due to the layers of meta narrative.

The panel ended on a wonderful note as one of the final questions landed on the musical numbers of the Hocus Pocus films and asking IF there were a third movie, what would the song performed be? Omri immediately, without a whiff of hesitation responded: