Practical Magic 2

It’s that time of year again: the smell of pumpkin spice is in the air, and IP-loving Hollywood is conjuring up its recipe for box office success. Yes, it’s not just limited-edition lattes that are making a return this spooky season: Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman reprise their enchanting roles as witchy sisters Sally and Gilly Owens in Practical Magic 2.

When Sally’s daughter, Kylie (Joey King in a role previously inhabited by Evan Rachel Wood), falls in love, it’s up to Sally and Gilly to save her from the perils of the family’s curse. This results in a trip to the UK and a meeting with impossibly hunky professor Ian Wright (Lee Pace), who just might sabotage Sally’s own vow to keep true love at bay.

Bullock and Kidman are evidently having fun, their chemistry as magical as it was almost 30 years ago. Likewise, King and Maisie Williams are worthy additions to the sorceress sorority, though the latter is, disappointingly, underused as Sally’s younger daughter, Antonia, now a doctor.

Susanne Bier, once known for making post-Dogme 95 weepies in her native Denmark, previously teamed up with Kidman for the infamously bingeable COVID-era miniseries The Undoing. The director’s melodramatic style works for the fantastical Practical Magic world. With candlelit autumnal settings plucked straight out of Pinterest, the aesthetic is sure to delight fans of all things fallcore. Pretty visuals aside, the film is more overtly political than its predecessor, exploring what it means to be an innately powerful woman in a world that deems her undeserving of possessing such power.

But there’s no denying that Hollywood’s nostalgia industrial complex makes such sequels appear more cynical than cosy. From The Devil Wears Prada to a TV prequel about Elle Woods’s bubblegum-pink teen years, just about every film Millennials held dear has been rebooted recently. Equally, that need for nostalgia is seemingly insatiable for those who grew up with these 90s and noughties classics, which hark back to a time in which the planet was not plagued by inhospitable temperatures and the latest of late-stage capitalism. As a wistful revival of a pop culture artefact, the film succeeds.

It’s hard to resist Practical Magic 2’s perfectly curated witchy whimsy. A wholesome, surprisingly timely tale of the power of sisterhood, it’s as comforting as a seasonal hot drink on a cold – or, given the aforementioned climate, unbearably humid – autumn evening.

Antonia Georgiou

Practical Magic 2 is released nationwide on 10^th September 2026.

Watch the trailer for Practical Magic 2 here: