Nicole Kidman is giving fans a bit of a Halloween tease this spooky season, simply taking to her social media page on Halloween with, not a costumed photo as most are wont to do, but a seeming glimpse of what's to come with the upcoming Practical Magic sequel. The actress shared photos of herself with a few tarot cards, such as "The Sun" and "The Watering Can," interspersed with some snaps of them in her hand, some in a garden that looked very much like the Owens' from the original 1998 movie, and a couple being sketched out on a candle-covered table.
"Just a little #PracticalMagic for your Halloween," she captioned the post, calling back to the summer she spent in England filming the sequel with her good friend and co-lead Sandra Bullock, and tagging both Warner Bros. and the Practical Magic pages. It was during that summer, reportedly, that she and now estranged husband Keith Urban began spending some time apart, leading to news of their separation and eventual divorce breaking in September.
On July 18, Nicole, 58, posted a clip on her Instagram celebrating the first day of filming with Sandra, 61, once again as Gilly and Sally Owens, with the team moving to England temporarily for the shoot. The filming schedule ended just a couple weeks before news of Nicole and Keith's split broke late in September. The project also marks Sandra's return to acting after taking an extended break to devote more time to motherhood and after the passing of her partner Bryan Randall.
In a Better World director Susanne Bier is taking over the helm from the original's Griffin Dunne, and a statement from her and the rest of the Practical Magic 2 team released earlier this year read: "Twenty-five years ago, Sally, Gillian, Aunt Jet and Aunt Franny flew off the pages of Alice Hoffman's beloved novel and into theaters around the world, and we are thrilled to bring the Owens family back to the big screen with Joey, Lee, Maisie, Solly and Xolo joining the next chapter in our story."
Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest are returning from the original, with the film's new cast including Joey King, Xolo Maridueña, Maisie Williams, Lee Pace and Solly McLeod. The sequel has a perfect fall release date, September 18, 2026. Producer Denise Di Novi spoke with People earlier this year about working on both the original and sequel, and how it hopes to preserve the 1998 cult classic's spark.
"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," she said, adding that the team "gets how important the first movie is to so many people, women in particular, and we want to honor that for sure."
"There's a joyousness to that movie, and there's such beautiful themes of sisterhood and family and acceptance, tolerance, love," she continued. "Just the title that Alice Hoffman, the amazing author, thought of that's now become part of the vernacular of Practical Magic is that there's magic in daily life, in love, in family, in sisterhood."
"It's magical, and we all have our gifts, and women have very particular and specific gifts. We really want to honor all of that."