Why Practical Magic 2 Replaced Evan Rachel Wood With Joey King

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The Owens sisters taught us to "always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder, keep rosemary by your garden gate, plant lavender for luck, and fall in love whenever you can," but unfortunately these enchanting rules for life don't include "bringing back all of the original cast for a legacy sequel." 1998's "Practical Magic" is a beloved cult hit that frequently finds new audiences on streaming platforms, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as Sally and Gillian Owens, two sisters from a magical family who have mostly abandoned their witchy ways and throw themselves into learning hard magic after a terrible tragedy. Nearly 30 years later, "Practical Magic" is returning with a sequel set 25 years after the events of the first film, with Bullock and Kidman returning in addition to Stockard Channing as Frances Owens and Dianne Wiest as Bridget "Jet" Owens, the women's eccentric aunts.

In the first film, we also meet Sally's two daughters, Kylie and Antonia, played by Evan Rachel Wood and Alexandra Artrip, respectively. The latter left the Hollywood spotlight after a few years as a child actor, but the former is very much still active in the industry. However, in "Practical Magic 2," Kylie is played by Joey King, while Antonia is played by Maisie Williams. Considering the sequel is set 25 years after the events of the first film — meaning Sally's daughters would now be in their mid to late 30s — the casting of 27-year-old King as the older daughter and 29-year-old Williams as the younger daughter seems ... odd. While Williams is closer in age to where Antonia is supposed to be, many fans are wondering why 38-year-old Wood wasn't brought back to reprise her role.

But according to EW, director Susanne Bier said that the sisters needed to be recast for the story.

The next generation of Owens girls are recent college grads

As director Susanne Bier told EW, this isn't an instance of actors being recast due to firing or something awful, but a necessary decision for the sequel's story to make sense. Specifically, despite "Practical Magic 2" taking place 25 years after the original, Kylie and Antonia will be aged down. "It was not a personal thing," Bier said during a red carpet interview with Variety. "The kids in the story are right out of college, so it wasn't really a question. We had to recast." 

This also means that while the sequel is loosely based on Alice Hoffman's 2021 novel, "The Book of Magic," they're taking some creative liberties. "I read the book, and it seems like they're not following the book," Evan Rachel Wood explained to Entertainment Tonight. "I think, in the book, it would have made sense to bring me back. I think in the way they're approaching it, the way they're doing it, it didn't make sense."

Fortunately, Wood seems to be encouraging to her successor, even if it stings that she wasn't invited back. Joey King told The Hollywood Reporter that she "had a lovely conversation" with Wood, "and I just was so appreciative of the support that she showed to me and to the rest of the cast. She is so talented and so beautiful, and she made this role so special when she was a young girl. I feel so grateful to be able to play Kylie at this age, but I love Evan so much, and I'm so appreciative of her kind words and the exchange that her and I shared."

We'll have to see how the timeline (that doesn't make any sense) shakes out when "Practical Magic 2" hits theaters on September 11, 2026.