As such, viewers were surprised to see her replaced in Return To Halloweentown. The 2006 sequel saw Sara Paxton take on the part of Marnie, although original Aggie actor Debbie Reynolds reprised her role in the belated follow-up film. So, why did Disney’s Halloween horror recast its leading lady?

The last story Brown shares about Reynolds is that on Halloween for many years, the famed actress would wear her Aggie costume and surprise young trick-or-treaters who happened to be lucky enough to knock on her door. “So many people ask me about her and I share as much as I can,” Brown explains.

The “Halloweentown” series had four films in total. Brown returned for “Halloweentown High,” the third installment, but was replaced by actress Sara Paxton in the fourth, “Return to Halloweentown.” “Ultimately it’s a decision that came down to Disney and I don’t know specifically,” she says of why she wasn’t asked to be part of it.

Here’s what the cast of the franchise, Halloweentown, is doing now. Kimberly J. Brown played the main character, Marnie Piper, in the Halloweentown series. She played the role up until the third movie where she was replaced. Brown has acted in a few other minor roles. Currently, she has a recurring role on General Hospital as Chloe Jennings.

What did Reynolds wear on Halloween?

The last story Brown shares about Reynolds is that on Halloween for many years, the famed actress would wear her Aggie costume and surprise young trick-or-treaters who happened to be lucky enough to knock on her door.

When reached by Page Six on Monday, “Return to Halloweentown” director David Jackson told us, “The character she played was younger than the actress actually was by enough years that we felt like as a collective group that it was better to recast someone who was younger. It kind of came down to that.”

The “Halloweentown” series had four films in total. Brown returned for “Halloweentown High,” the third installment, but was replaced by actress Sara Paxton in the fourth, “Return to Halloweentown.”

In 2016, Kountz and Brown reunited to make a YouTube video about where his “Halloweentown” character would be today.

The first “Halloweentown” was filmed in Oregon for around five weeks in the summer of 1998. Brown recounts stories including one about Robin Thomas, who plays the movie’s villain Kalabar, being taken to a local doctor after blowing out his vocal cord during the confrontation scene at the end of the film. She also tells us how Reynolds (Aggie Cromwell) used to write all her lines for each day on yellow legal pads because the print was too small on the script copies.

During her short breaks, Reynolds would stroll over to the crowd and say, “Hello, I’m Princess Leia’s mom,” we’re told. She was known to chat with the fans and always thank them for coming by to watch.

At the time, Brown says she knew who Reynolds was, but had only seen “Singin’ in the Rain.” Ahead of filming, her father bought her “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” — for which Reynolds was nominated for an Oscar — to watch.

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