Evan Rachel Wood just offered a reality check on the Practical Magic sequel, and it stings. According to Rolling Stone, the actress revealed she wasn't asked to reprise her role as Kylie Owens—and made clear the decision wasn't hers to make.
"I offered my services, even if it was one scene or one line," Wood wrote on Instagram earlier this month, per the Rolling Stone report. "I was told they are recasting. I am sorry to disappoint the fans. It was not in my control or my choice."
Wood then doubled down in an Entertainment Tonight interview, getting candid about what the recast means for fans. "It is sad, because we bonded with that cast so much as children, and so to miss out on the opportunity to look at that cast and look at that house as an adult and see the history in our eyes, it's something that can't be faked," she told the outlet. "I'm sad that doesn't get to exist, especially for the fans."
The original Practical Magic (1998) was a cultural touchstone for millennial horror-romance fans. Sandra Bullock's Sally Owens and Wood's Kylie represented complex, nuanced female characters navigating magic, family trauma, and generational curses. That chemistry, that specific energy—Wood's right that it can't be replicated with new casting.
Instead, Practical Magic 2 casts Joey King as Kylie. King appeared in The Kissing Booth and recent thriller work, but she was a toddler when the original film arrived. The sequel, arriving September 11, adapts Alice Hoffman's 2021 novel The Book of Magic. According to Rolling Stone, even Wood herself questioned whether the film will do justice to the source material.
This feels like a missed opportunity for Warner Bros. Bringing back the original cast—even in brief roles—would have been strong box office. Fans respond to legacy sequels that honor the original. Instead, the studio chose a full recast, signaling a chase for a younger demographic rather than the devoted fanbase that has kept Practical Magic alive for nearly three decades.
Wood's openness about the rejection is honest in an industry that usually demands silence. She didn't trash the project or claim victim status. She said what fans are thinking: this sequel lost something irreplaceable when the door closed on the Owens sisters reunion.
