Actress Joey King wore a see-through Miu Miu dress at the London premiere of Practical Magic 2 on August 26, 2026.
The 27-year-old star posed on the red carpet alongside costars Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Maisie Williams, Dianne Wiest, Stockard Channing and Xolo Maridueña nearly 30 years after the original fantasy movie debuted.
King wore a see-through butter yellow gown over mustard yellow Miu Miu undergarments with matching strappy heels, featuring white flower appliques across her chest and bodice. Williams wore a crimson gown with her brunette hair in an updo, posing with King as the pair play sisters in the upcoming sequel.
King is known for her bold fashion choices, having shaved her head in 2018 to play Gypsy Rose Blanchard in the true-crime drama series The Act and bleached her eyebrows in January 2025. "I dyed my eyebrows like a week ago," King said in a TikTok video at the time. "They were like white before and now they just look like the Lorax mustache." She added: "Guys, I know I look weird. That's the point."
Speaking to People last month, King said original stars Bullock and Kidman welcomed the newcomers on set. "They are the best duo ever," King said, noting she previously worked with Kidman when the Oscar winner played her mother in a film. "Nicole and I worked together a few years ago. She played my mom in a movie, and we became really close from that, which was so crazy. I'm just such a fan of her. I'm so in awe of her. She's the nicest person ever."
King added that Bullock took her and Williams "under her wing as her daughters." Williams called Bullock "the nicest woman in Hollywood," revealing: "Sandra just texted us both straight away saying, 'Welcome, anything you need.' And that just made us feel so chill."
Casting history and on-set chemistry
The original 1998 film Practical Magic was based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Alice Hoffman. Bullock was already a major Hollywood star when she was cast as Sally Owens, and she suggested Kidman to play her free-spirited sister Gillian despite having never met her.
In the DVD commentary, Bullock said: "I was like, 'Nicole Kidman seems like the perfect person.' Our energies are so opposite that we needed what the other person had. I know I needed what she had. I don't know why I thought of her or why that worked, it's just one of those things, those magical things." Kidman added: "I've mainly only got to work with men in my career, so the idea of working with Sandy on something like this, I thought, 'Wow, that sounds fun and I want to work with a girl!'"
Director Griffin Dunne said the two leads shared immediate chemistry on set. "They just had this great chemistry," Dunne said. "They fight, they laugh at the same jokes, they're familiar with each other in that historical way."
Producer Denise Di Novi sought an actor resembling Gary Cooper to play investigator Gary Hallett, casting Aidan Quinn for his honest demeanor. Bullock recalled her mother noting that Quinn "comes with an incredible amount of integrity." Dunne admitted worrying about introducing a love interest midway through the story, calling Quinn "the breath of fresh air that walks through the door."
The original movie featured Evan Rachel Wood as Sally's daughter Kylie in an early career role, while Camilla Belle portrayed a young Bullock. The villain Jimmy Angelov was initially written as a Texan character, but Dunne changed him to Croatian after casting ER star Goran Višnji´c.
Real witch threats and New Age exorcism
Production on the 1998 movie involved behind-the-scenes drama when Dunne hired a practicing witch as a consultant. After becoming dissatisfied with her contract, she demanded $250,000 and a cut of the box office gross, sued Warner Bros., and left a terrifying voicemail threatening to hex the director and film in tongues.
Dunne told Vanity Fair in 2023: "I took the little mini cassette recording and gave it to the legal department. They didn't get halfway through it before they said, 'F--k this,' and wrote her a check." To protect the set, Dunne conducted a New Age exorcism with chants and smoke, telling Vulture it was done "mostly to cover my bases." The ordeal inspired the film's line: "Curses only have power when you believe them."
Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest played aunts Frances and Jet. Channing told Vulture in 2020 that early makeup tests failed, so they adopted ballet makeup with black lipstick, curly wigs, and Stevie Nicks inspired wardrobe. Channing also admitted lying about speaking French to land a free trip to Paris to dub the film, calling it "one of the stupidest things I've ever done in my entire life."
During the famous midnight margaritas scene, Kidman brought real tequila to the set and the lead cast actually drank. Dunne added the Harry Nilsson song Lime in a Coconut during the final take, sparking an impromptu crew party. Dunne told Vanity Fair: "Yes, I definitely joined in on the tequila. I was quite s--tfaced by the time we finished shooting, as was everyone."
Film locations and altered story cuts
Exterior scenes were shot in San Juan Island, Washington, where crew built an architectural shell of the Owens house that was demolished immediately after filming. Barbra Streisand called producers wanting to buy the house, while production designer Robin Standefer was hired by Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor to remodel their home after seeing her interior work.
The town scenes were filmed in Coupeville on Whidbey Island, Washington, with local residents appearing as extras. In post-production, Alan Silvestri replaced original composer Michael Nyman shortly before release, resulting in two separate soundtrack albums being sold.
The original cut was much darker, focusing heavily on domestic violence and Gillian's haunting. Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman told Collider in 2020: "It was more of a ghost story. It was really beautiful and it was weird." Dunne's original ending featured a longer choreographed scene of the four witches floating off the roof, but Warner Bros. made him trim it after asking why they would jump.
Previous spin-offs and TV development
Before the 2026 sequel, Warner Bros. made multiple attempts to expand the story. Bullock executive-produced a 2004 TV pilot starring Kim Delaney and Jeri Ryan, while ABC Family attempted a reboot in 2010. HBO ordered a 1960s prequel pilot titled Rules of Magic in 2019, though it was never produced.
Dunne was never contacted about the spin-offs, but told Vanity Fair he would welcome revisiting the material. "I would like to bring the perspective of a filmmaker 25 years later in the world that we live in now, to see how we could retell the story in a more contemporary way," Dunne said. "I'd be really curious to know how to be in that world again."
