Here’s what we know about ‘Practical Magic 2’ & why we think the sequel will be even gayer

Witch, please! After years of incantations, Hollywood has finally–finally!– fallen under our spell and will give us the sequel we’ve been hoping for: Practical Magic 2.

While we normally don’t want to encourage studios to sequel-ize everything just for the sake of nostalgia, Practical Magic feels like the rare movie actually ripe for a follow-up.

The original, released in 1998, was the story of gorgeous witch sisters Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman), who were raised by their eccentric aunts Frances (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest) in small-town Massachusetts, where they were outcasts of the community, afraid of love because of a family curse that would bring their would-be paramours to an untimely demise.

A downright kooky concoction of fantasy, romance, and dark comedy, Practical Magic didn’t quite click with critics at the time (it holds a 26% “Rotten” rating on RottenTomatoes), and didn’t exactly bewitch the box office either.

But in the years since, it’s been reclaimed as a classic by girls and gays alike, who fell for the spell-binding tale of sisterhood, plus its themes of embracing what makes you unique and thriving outside the strict bounds of so-called “polite society.” Sounds pretty gay to us!

No, none of the characters were ever directly identified as queer in the film, though it’s hard not to read the Owens’ women’s curse—dooming any man they might fall in love with—as more of an invitation to give girls a spin. And you can’t tell us “aunts” Franny and Jet aren’t one of those classic cases of two live-in lesbian spinsters fronting as besties so they can cohabitate in peace.

All of which is to say, a return to the Owens household feels overdue—and hopefully it’s an opportunity to make a sequel catered to the queer and femme audiences who understood it from the very beginning.

So, with Warner Bros. finally announcing plans for the sequel, set to hit theaters on September 18, 2026, let’s conjure up everything we know so far about Practical Magic 2.

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Who is starring in Practical Magic 2?

Along with the official sequel announcement, Warner Bros. confirmed that Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman will be returning as Sally and Gillian, respectively—and thank goodness for that! Can you imagine Practical Magic without them?

Of course, it wasn’t exactly a given. Kidman is quite possibly the most booked & busy woman in Hollywood, so the sequel would have to be something really special to be worth her valuable time.

Same goes for Bullock, who has stepped away from the camera in recent years. In fact, this will be her first role of any kind since her partner Bryan Randall tragically passed from ALS in 2023. We’re so happy to have you back, Sandy!

More recently, Deadline revealed that Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest will be back as Aunts Franny and Jet, too. To be honest, we’d watch these iconic character actresses in anything, but seeing them back to their witchy ways will be a real treat—especially if we can finally get confirmation that they’re in love with each other.

(Fun fact, at one point in time, Franny & Jet were going to lead their own prequel series for HBO Max, which would follow the two at a younger age, as they were just discovering their powers in 1960s New York City.)

And there are plenty of news faces joining the coven, so to speak: Deadline has also confirmed the rumors that Joey King (The Act) has “locked down the role of Sally’s daughter,” though it’s worth noting that, in the original, she has two—Kylie and Antonia—and there’s no word yet on which King will play.

Tough no further character details have been confirmed, other names announced to join include Maisie Williams (Game Of Thrones), Xolo Maridueña (Blue Beetle), Solly McLeod (who played a gay knight for a short stint on House Of The Dragon), and—most importantly to all the gays out there—out hunk Lee Pace, who you may recognize from projects such as Pushing Daisies, Foundation, and your nightly dreams.

Behind the scenes, Susanne Bier (Bird Box) has been tapped to direct, while the original’s director Griffin Dunne returns as an executive producer. The script will be written by Akiva Goldsman—who also worked on the first film—and Georgia Pritchett (Succession, Veep)

Which brings us to our next question: What’s this movie about anyway?

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What’s the plot of Practical Magic 2?

The film’s synopsis, per IMDB, is as follows: “A multi generational family of witches, cursed to be loveless for centuries, attempts to break the spell by confronting dark secrets and sacrificing for each other.”

If that sounds a lot like the ’98 movie, that’s kind of the point. For one, no story details have been officially confirmed. But, in an interview with People, producer Denise Di Novi (who worked on the original, too) said that their aim is to maintain the spirit of the original:

“I think the big mistake people make with sequels is when they kind of want to reinvent the wheel and be totally original and surprise people that it’s different or whatever,” Di Novi shared, adding that the creative team “gets how important the first movie is to so many people, women in particular, and we want to honor that for sure.”

However, in a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly last year, she spilled some tea that could be a bit more telling…

The first Practical Magic was adapted from a 1995 Alice Hoffman novel of the same name. Since then, she has written two prequels—The Rules Of Magic (2017) and Magic Lessons (2020)—and most recently a sequel, The Book Of Magic (2021), the latter of which Di Novi confirms the upcoming movie’s plot will draw heavily from.

As expected, that story catches up with the Owens ladies many years later, when dear Aunt Jet hears “the deathwatch beetle,” the witch-lore omen that her days on earth are running out.

All the women of the family have stayed in touch, and have found their work-arounds to living with the curse. In the novel, Gillian is even married to a man named Ben, but doesn’t live with him, or even wear her wedding ring as an extra precaution.

Sally’s eldest daughter Antonia (possible played by Maisie Williams?) is “married” to her work as a doctor, and is meanwhile planning to have a baby with her gay best friend. Gay rights!

The younger daughter, Kylie (who we have to imagine is Joey King, three years Williams’ junior)—who still lives with her mother and aunts—has a longtime best friend named Gideon. But when she realizes her feelings for him now run deeper then platonic, she fear he could be the next victim of the curse.

In a race against time, the Owens women consult the ancient magic book known as the Grimoire (also seen in Wicked!), and set out on a journey from Paris to London to the English countryside, where their ancestor Marie first practiced the Dark Arts, bringing the curse to the family.

Apparently, their journey also finds them crossing paths with *potential spoiler alert* long-lost Uncle Vincent, who faked his own demise and absconded to France after falling in love with a man! In Hoffman’s book, he’s Franny and Jet’s brother, but given Lee Pace’s casting, we’re not-so-secretly hoping they de-aged the character to be Gillian and Sally’s brother instead.

Think about it: Pace as an all-powerful and well-traveled gay warlock? That should be reason enough for this sequel to get made no?

Anyway, that’s all we know about Practical Magic 2 for now, so stay tuned for updates and mark your calendars for September 18, 2026! Those witches can’t come soon enough!

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