Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Stockard Channing, and Dianne Wiest return for the sequel, alongside new cast members Joey King, Maisie Williams, and Lee Pace.

Practical Magic 2: The shocking fate of 2 fan-favorite characters, explained

Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Stockard Channing, and Dianne Wiest return for the sequel, alongside new cast members Joey King, Maisie Williams, and Lee Pace.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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September 11, 2026 3:20 p.m. ET

Dianne Wiest, Sandra Bullock, Stockard Channing, and Nicole Kidman in ‘Practical Magic 2’. Credit:

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

- *Practical Magic 2 *has arrived in theaters, 28 years after the release of the enchanting original.

- Core cast members Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Stockard Channing, and Dianne Wiest all returned for the sequel, joining new cast Joey King, Maisie Williams, Xolo Maridueña, and Lee Pace.

- The sequel, directed by *Bird Box *helmer Susanne Bier, sees shocking fates doled out for two of its core characters. Here’s what you need to know.

**This article contains spoilers for *Practical Magic 2*.**

After what feels like a lifetime (28 years to be exact), the Owens sisters have returned for more *Practical Magic*.

*Practical Magic 2* reunites Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as Sally and Gillian Owens, sister witches living in a charming seaside cottage in Massachusetts who are now helping rear a new generation into their coven. Joey King and Maisie Williams replace Evan Rachel Wood and Alexandra Artrip as Sally’s grown-up daughters, Kylie and Antonia Owens. Lee Pace, Xolo Maridueña, and Solly McLeod also join the cast — and that’s not all.

Director Susanne Bier and co-writers Georgia Pritchett, Kelly Marcel, and Akiva Goldsman (the sole carry-over from the first film’s script team) understood that it wouldn’t be a proper Owens party without the grand high matriarchs themselves — Stockard Channing’s Aunt Frances and Dianne Wiest’s Aunt Bridget, nicknamed Jet.

The beloved original delivered plenty of twists, thrills, and chills, courtesy of director Griffin Dunne and Alice Hoffman, who wrote the novels the 1998 and 2026 films are based on. But *Practical Magic 2 *kicks it up a mighty notch. The sequel doles out a pair of shocking fates to two of its core characters, and if you think you can stomach the who and how of it all, read on for a full breakdown.

Stockard Channing, Sandra Bullock, Dianne Wiest, and Nicole Kidman in ‘Practical Magic 2’.

Where does Practical Magic 2 find the Owens woman 28 years later?

For those who haven’t seen *Practical Magic*, or haven’t seen it in some time, the autumnal classic follows the Owens sisters and their kooky aunts, all of whom are cursed with lovelessness by their doomed ancestor, Maria Owens. Any man they fall for meets a gruesome end. It happens to Sally after she has her kids with beau Michael (Mark Feuerstein), and it happens to Gillian after Sally is forced to kill her murderous flame Jimmy (Goran Visnjic) in self-defense.

Jimmy’s vengeful spirit comes back to haunt the Owens, who must enlist the help of Jet, Franny, and the group of reticent townswomen to banish him back to the nether-realm. In the meantime, Sally ends up falling for the detective investigating Billy’s death, Aidan Quinn’s Gary Hallet. The film ends with Sally and Gary happily in love, which begs a question that’s been gestating for 28 years — doesn’t that slap him with a death sentence?

The opening minutes of *Practical Magic 2 *answer that question: it does. Aidan Quinn did not return for the sequel, and Gary is revealed as a goner. As a result, Sally and Gillian have completely sworn off love — for real this time. Sally is so radicalized against the curse that she’s banned any mention of magic from Kylie and Antonia, which chafes the rest of the Owens women.

Of course, this is a big studio dramedy starring two of Hollywood’s most indelible romantic heroines. Love has to rise again. And it does, making heartbreak inevitable. But *Practical Magic 2 *doesn’t plunge the knife right into your heart; it twists it in a startling direction. The real tragedy of the film occurs not in the domain of love, but of family.

‘Practical Magic 2’ ending explained: What becomes of Sally, Gillian, and the younger Owens women?

‘Practical Magic 2’: All the callbacks to the original you missed in the sequel

The end of the road for a fan-favorite

*Practical Magic 2 *features plenty of callbacks to the original, from the blending up of frozen margaritas to the leaping off of the Owens roof, witchy umbrellas in hand. There are more somber, dread-inducing callbacks, too.

Early into the film, Aunt Jet discovers a “left-handed book of shadows” that may hold the key to breaking Maria Owen’s curse. Then she begins to hear a familiar chirping. It’s the deathwatch beetle — an uneasy symbol that originated in Hoffman’s 1995 book. The glittering black bug can be seen and, more prominently, heard by an Owens witch whenever someone is about to die.

Unfortunately for fans of the franchise, the beetle has come for an Owens this time, not one of their lovers. Jet resigns herself to her fate, and promises her sister and nieces that her passing will be peaceful. It still shocks Sally and Gillian to the core — Sally especially, who has become so distant from her Wiccan provenance that she can scarcely hear the beetle’s chirping.

Dianne Wiest as Aunt Jet in ‘Practical Magic 2’.

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Wiest may depart the film earlier than anyone might like her to, but the evening she spends with her family before she passes on makes for one of its most touching scenes.

The four do what they love most — sit around a table with a plentiful supply of booze and gab. A version of the Fleetwood Mac classic “Landslide,” re-recorded by singer Steve Nicks much later in her life, soundtracks the scene, as DP Simon Duggan’s camera pans across each actress’ face, twisted with bittersweet complexity.

“Live a little. Live a lot,” are Jet’s last words.

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But that’s not all

Bier grants viewers a long reprieve before there’s any more heartbreak. But there is more.

After Jet’s death, Kylie has her own brush when she defies the Owens commandment never to love and confesses her feelings for her boyfriend, Gideon (Maridueña). The next morning he’s hit by a car and sinks into a coma. While Franny and Antonia remain in constant vigil by his bedside, Kylie absconds with Jet’s book of shadows on an ill-conceived voyage to England, where she hopes to harness enough power to save his life.

Sally and Gillian follow. They team up with the dashing occult academic Ian Wright (Pace), who helps them track Kylie to the ruins of a remote castle called Lockland Manor. She’s unknowingly fallen into the clutches of a demented, powerless warlock (McLeod) bent on stealing her power for his own. All manner of spell-casting and allegiance pledging to the sanctity of sisterhood spares the Owens women, but the curse remains.

Stockard Channing as Aunt Frances in ‘Practical Magic 2’.

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Jet left her loyal sister the book of shadows, but Kylie ran off with it before Franny could properly study it. When it’s finally returned to her possession, she walks to the shore and begins to pore over the pages.

She finally learns what it takes to break Maria’s powerful curse — an Owens witch’s self-sacrifice. “My girls,” Franny laments in voiceover. The scene cuts to Sally and Gillian, who both come to a sudden awareness of Franny’s ultimate act of selflessness. “Oh Franny,” Sally says to herself. But there’s Jet standing on the opposite bank, resplendent in a lacy, witchy cape, ready to welcome her sister to the other side.

Jet walks into the water and gives her girls back the gift of love. “We’re the aunts now,” Sally later tells Gillian, and the whole family drinks a toast to the women that paved the way.

*Practical Magic 2 *releases in select theaters on Sept. 10, before opening wide on Sept. 11.

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