Kathy Najimy explains why Mary's crooked mouth is on the other side in Hocus Pocus 2

No, Mary Sanderson's mouth hasn't run amok in Hocus Pocus 2 — the beloved witch's iconic crooked jaw has a perfectly reasonable explanation for being on the other side of actress Kathy Najimy's mouth in the upcoming Disney sequel.

Najimy exclusively tells EW that the character quirk (which she improvised while preparing to shoot the original 1993 film) had to be slightly adapted for her in director Anne Fletcher's continuation that sees the Sanderson Sisters return to Salem to terrorize a new trio of children (Belissa Escobedo, Whitney Peak, and Lilia Buckingham) on Halloween night.

"It's on the other side mainly because it's so hard for me to do it on the side I did it on 30 years ago. I'm sure the fans are going to go into deep detail about why it's on the other side," the actress explained in our exclusive interview with returning stars Najimy, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Bette Midler. "It's just something I came up with the first week. This is a big comedy, so you don't have to be subtle or have a 40-page Shakespearean backstory."

Still, Najimy says they explain it in the film, anyway: "We can justify it because there's a scene at the beginning where Winnie slaps me, and my mouth goes to the other side, and then she slaps me again and it goes to the other side, and sticks."

Disney; Disney + Kathy Najimy explains switching Mary Sanderson's crooked jaw for 'Hocus Pocus 2.'

Hocus Pocus 2 — out now on Disney+ — picks up 30 years after the first movie became a seasonal classic for its tale of three children (Omri Katz, Vinessa Shaw, and Thora Birch — all of whom don't appear in the sequel) who unwittingly resurrect the nefarious, soul-stealing witches. The witches (and Doug Jones' lovable zombie, Billy Butcherson) are back for more, but Fletcher wanted to flesh out their backstory this time around.

The film opens with a sequence set in 1600s New England, charting the siblings' transformation into magically inclined sorceresses as kids.

"The opening sequence of the movie, we get some history of our witches and Billy. We get a little kiss — pardon the pun — of the Billy aspect of it, and the world that they lived in and what happened to the witches," Fletcher previously told EW, while Midler added: "[We] explain how they got to the point where they gladly become witches. They're so tight as sisters, and that's explained. It's quite satisfying."

Hocus Pocus 2 — also starring Sam Richardson, Hannah Waddingham, Tony Hale, and RuPaul's Drag Race stars Kahmora Hall, Kornbread "The Snack" Jeté, and Ginger Minj — is out now on Disney+. Read EW's full interview with the actresses behind the Sanderson Sisters.

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