Practical Magic 2 Reunites Bullock and Kidman for Sept. 10 Cinema Release

Q: As the Owens women travel abroad, what dark generational secrets does the newly discovered Book of the Raven actually hide?

The Book of the Raven appears to hide the Owens family’s most dangerous buried truth: that the love curse was never fully broken and is tied to older, darker magic reaching back to their ancestor Maria Owens. Across the film coverage and the Alice Hoffman source material it draws from, the book is described as a dangerous grimoire discovered among Aunt Jet’s belongings, one that may contain the key to ending the centuries-old curse. But it also carries concealed knowledge about the family’s origins, including secrets Sally kept from the younger generation about their powers and the real cost of using forbidden magic. That “dark generational secret” is not just the existence of the curse itself, but how deeply it is bound to inheritance, sacrifice and left-handed or perilous magic. Kylie’s journey suggests the book reveals her own latent powers and pushes her toward occult practices that could save Gideon but also endanger the family. Reviews and plot summaries also indicate it points the Owens women back to England, where Maria Owens first practiced magic and where the curse’s roots can be confronted more directly. So the Book of the Raven functions less as a simple spellbook than as a repository of suppressed family history: the unfinished curse, the true legacy of Maria Owens, and the hidden magical capacities—and emotional wounds—passed down through generations of Owens women.

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 8

Practical Magic 2 opens in U.S. and Australian cinemas on Sept. 10, bringing Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman back as the Owens sisters nearly 28 years after the 1998 original.
Susanne Bier directs the sequel, which follows Sally and Gilly as they pursue Sally’s daughter Kylie to England after her boyfriend falls into a cursed coma.
Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest also return, while Joey King, Maisie Williams, Lee Pace and Solly McLeod join a story that again leans on family curses, romance and sisterhood.
The film arrives as a rare theatrical sequel built on 1990s nostalgia, with the review describing its tone as still eccentric and uneven but buoyed by Bullock and Kidman’s enduring chemistry.