28 Years Later, the Owens Sisters Return — and the Internet Is Already Furious About What They Look Like

Warner Bros. released the new official trailer for Practical Magic 2 on June 24, 2026, reuniting Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the Owens sisters nearly three decades after the original supernatural romantic comedy debuted. Directed by Susanne Bier and based on Alice Hoffman’s novel The Book of Magic, the sequel picks up twenty-five years after the first film: the dormant Owens family curse resurfaces, pulling Sally’s adult daughter Kylie — played by Joey King — into a supernatural crisis that eventually forces the extended family from their Massachusetts home to Britain to confront the origins of their magic. Returning alongside Bullock and Kidman are Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest; new cast members include Maisie Williams, Xolo Maridueña, and Lee Pace, with original producer Denise Di Novi also returning for the sequel [1]. The film is scheduled for a theatrical release on September 11, 2026 [1].

The trailer landed to a sharply divided online response. Devoted fans of the 1998 film immediately criticized the sequel’s flat, pastel visual aesthetic — widely labeled “Netflix lighting” on social media — as a fundamental departure from the dark, moody, gothic atmosphere that defined the original and built its cult following over nearly three decades; some called the trailer “awful” and accused the studio of releasing something with “zero whimsy and zero magic” [2]. Others raised apparent continuity questions, arguing the sequel’s framing of the Owens curse conflicts with the resolution achieved at the end of the first film [2]. Supporters countered that the trailer’s use of a Lana Del Rey rendition of “Season of the Witch” captures the franchise’s spirit, and praised the expansion of the Owens mythology through the new generation of cast members [3].

Why It Sucks:

Fans of the 1998 Original

• The original’s visual identity has been erased. The 1998 film’s dark, gothic, moody color palette was not incidental to its appeal — it was the foundation of the movie’s singular atmosphere and the reason it survived a weak theatrical run to become a cult classic. The new trailer’s flat “Netflix lighting” makes the sequel look indistinguishable from generic studio fantasy, and fans argue that aesthetic was the entire brand [2].
• The sequel may actively contradict the first film’s ending. Multiple viewers flagged that the sequel’s premise — positioning the Owens family curse as an unresolved ancestral burden still requiring a generational fix — appears to conflict with the resolution achieved in the original, risking the invalidation of an emotional payoff that fans have carried for nearly three decades [2].
• The cult fanbase kept this IP alive and may now be sidelined. The original underperformed at the box office but survived through devoted home video audiences and word of mouth; the sequel now appears engineered for mainstream palatability rather than honoring the specific, uncommercial aesthetic that sustained the Owens sisters’ appeal long enough for Warner Bros. to greenlight a follow-up [1, 2].

Fans of the New Cast (Joey King, Maisie Williams, Xolo Maridueña)

• The next generation is playing backup, not taking the lead. All three newer cast members carry substantial, established fanbases of their own, but the trailer and marketing position them as supporting players in a story still centered on the return of Bullock and Kidman rather than offering a genuine generational handoff [1].
• Joey King’s character appears to be a story trigger, not the protagonist. Kylie Owens is theoretically the vehicle for the franchise’s next chapter, but the plot as described forces Sally and Gillian back into the fray to rescue Kylie’s endangered love interest — structuring the new generation’s role as a catalyst for the legacy stars rather than as leads in their own right [1, 3].
• Younger audiences inherit the ticket price but not the emotional payoff. Fans of King, Williams, or Maridueña arriving without personal connection to the 1998 original are being asked to invest in a film whose emotional climaxes are built around nostalgia they don’t share, making the sequel’s core appeal structurally inaccessible to the new audience it claims to court [1].

Theatrical Exhibitors and Box Office Analysts

• The original never proved itself theatrically, and a divided fanbase amplifies the risk. The 1998 Practical Magic underperformed in theaters before finding its audience on home video — meaning the sequel’s entire commercial case rests on brand loyalty rather than a proven blockbuster track record, and a trailer that polarizes the exact fans who built that loyalty is not the signal exhibitors needed [1].
• A September 11 opening is a historically difficult theatrical slot. Warner Bros. has scheduled the film to open September 11, 2026 — a date that has historically produced weaker theatrical turnout than summer peaks or holiday windows — placing the full burden of a strong opening weekend on a fanbase now publicly split over whether the sequel has earned its ticket price [1].
• A legacy sequel that doesn’t convert fans into buyers exposes the whole formula. If Practical Magic 2 replicates the original’s theatrical underperformance, the studio’s calculation that 28-year-old nostalgia IP can reliably drive audiences back to cinemas will face serious scrutiny — and the wave of 1990s property revivals currently in development will inherit that doubt [1, 2].

Sources & Citations:

[1] Deadline: ‘Practical Magic 2’ Trailer: Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman Face Curse
[2] TechRadar: ‘They Ruined My Favorite Movie’: Fans Slam Practical Magic 2 Trailer for ‘Netflix Lighting’
[3] Rolling Stone: The Owen Sisters Are Tested By Their Cursed Fate in ‘Practical Magic 2’ Trailer