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The Walking Dead's Forgotten Link to Hocus Pocus Resurfaces

Published

2 weeks ago

November 2, 2024

Christoph Rediske

Key Takeaways

Table of Contents

The Walking Dead’s final season ended in 2022, but a connection to Hocus Pocus with a shared character has surfaced.
The decline in The Walking Dead’s viewership was attributed to repetitive plotlines and character deaths.
An animated series for The Walking Dead faces obstacles as AMC holds rights; fans hope for a faithful adaptation.

The final season of The Walking Dead may have conclued in 2022, but a surprising connection to the 1993 film, Hocus Pocus, has risen from the ashes to showcase a forgotten character that appeared in both of the popular franchises. The Walking Dead, a post-apocalyptic horror television series on AMC, premiered on October 31, 2010, with Its very last episode hitting screens on November 20, 2022. Based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman, who also penned Invincible, Marvel Zombies and many others, The Walking Dead tells the incredible tale of a group of strangers who come together to face the collapse of modern civilization. Not only do they have to fend off attacks from zombies known as “walkers”, but also from each other, which, essentially, is the main crux of its storyline.

Due to The Walking Dead‘s high ratings, it was nominated for a host of awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series Drama and the Writers Guild of America Award for New Series. However, the show’s viewership began a downward spiral during its later seasons, likely due to falling into some repetitive plotlines and the horrific deaths of popular Walking Dead characters, Abraham and Glenn. Now, The Walking Dead is back once more, but not with more of the post-apocalypse, but rather a forgotten character from season 10, episode two, who connects the show with the Bette Midler movie, Hocus Pocus.

The Walking Dead Animated Series Happening Depends On One Important Thing

Despite creator approval, The Walking Dead’s animated series faces obstacles as AMC holds rights, leaving fans hopeful for a faithful adaptation.

In a post on The Walking Dead‘s Reddit, user LittlePigLucille has reminded fans that a star from Hocus Pocus, as well as the Sam Mendes 1999 film, American Beauty, was briefly a part of the cast. Thora Birch played Dani Dennison, the younger sister of Max, who inadvertently resurrects a trio of witches in Hocus Pocus, for which she is more recognizable for portraying. But Birch was also in The Walking Dead season 10 ‘We Are The End Of The World’ as a character called Gamma, playing leader Alpha’s (Samantha Morton) Whisperer minion who killed her own sister. Later on in the season, Gamma, revealing her name as Mary, showcased that she wasn’t a heartless Walking Dead villain after all and joined the good guys but, unfortunately, that didn’t stop Alpha from disemboweling her, making Gamma’s departure from the show fairly swift.

Many of the replies in the comment section of the post had absolutely no idea five years after season 10 ended that The Walking Dead‘s Gamma was Dani from the Halloween classic Hocus Pocus, providing a slew of hilarious responses. However, as terrible as Gamma initially was in the show, under the morally corrupt Alpha, not many villains could touch The Walking Dead Negan, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, due to his cruel and calculating behavior.

An animated series based on The Walking Dead is something that fans are excited about receiving, but a recent pause in development was put in place by Robert Kirkman after encountering some issues with AMC. In response to a fan inquiry, Kirkman said an animated Walking Dead cannot happen until he gets the rights back from AMC. Here’s hoping something can be sorted out there as a Walking Dead animation would certainly help bring the once iconic show back from…the dead.