Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman walked the carpet together again as the Owens sisters, joined by a new generation of cast members, at the Los Angeles premiere of Practical Magic 2 on August 31, 2026. The event unfolded at the Directors Village Theatre, marking the public unveiling of a sequel nearly three decades in the making.
According to New York Daily News, the premiere drew an extensive cast list beyond its two leads. Joey King and Maisie Williams, who play the next generation of Owens women in the film, attended alongside director Susanne Bier and producer Denise Di Novi. Also on hand were Josh Holloway, Xolo Maridueña, Solly McLeod, Brooks Nader, Loren Lott, Jazmine Robinson and Adam Rose, per the outlet's report. Photographers Valerie Macon, shooting for AFP via Getty Images, and Monica Schipper, working for Getty Images, documented the carpet.
The premiere caps a promotional push that began just days earlier. Four days before the Los Angeles event, Bullock, Kidman, King and Williams launched European press events at Claridge's Hotel in London on August 27, where the four actresses wore dark, Gothic-inspired ensembles for a photocall, as reported by Penarth Times.
A Sequel 28 Years in the Making
Practical Magic 2 is a Warner Bros. Pictures release adapting Alice Hoffman's 2021 novel The Book of Magic, the final installment of a four-book literary series the author began in 1995, according to Wikipedia. The story picks up 25 years after the events of the original film, with King's character, Kylie — daughter of Bullock's Sally Owens — discovering her own developing powers as they spark a new family crisis tied to a centuries-old bloodline curse, Us Weekly reports.
Oscar winners Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing reprised their roles as eccentric aunts Jet and Franny Owens, the maternal figures who raised the sisters in the 1998 film, joining Bullock and Kidman in the returning cast, per the same Wikipedia entry. Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, who co-wrote the original Practical Magic, came back to script the sequel alongside television writers Georgia Pritchett of Succession and Kelly Marcel, as Bloody Disgusting notes.
From Whidbey Island to Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden
The original 1998 film shot entirely in Washington State, where crews built a white Victorian Owens house on Whidbey Island for $80,000 — an uninsulated shell that took six months to construct before being dismantled after filming wrapped, according to TravelPirates. For the sequel, set designers had to reconstruct the house's interior and exterior from scratch, this time in England.
Principal photography ran from July 18 to September 13, 2025, based out of Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden with additional location shooting in London, Devon and Essex, TravelPirates reports. That Essex location shoot included vintage train cars at the Epping Ongar Railway. Director Susanne Bier, who previously helmed Bullock's 2018 thriller Bird Box and directed Kidman in the television series The Undoing and The Perfect Couple, took on the project after Bullock and Kidman personally approached her, according to The Mirror.
From Box-Office Underperformer to Autumn Classic
The original Practical Magic grossed $68.3 million worldwide against a production budget estimated between $60 million and $75 million upon its October 1998 release, according to Wikipedia. Despite that modest theatrical showing, the film developed a massive cult following over the following decades, becoming an autumn seasonal favorite through home video and streaming, per Bloody Disgusting's account of the franchise's history.
That slow-burn fandom is part of what convinced Warner Bros. to greenlight a sequel nearly three decades later. Practical Magic 2 is set for international theatrical premieres beginning September 9, 2026, ahead of its North American release on September 11, following the studio's summer marketing rollout, per Wikipedia.
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