Nicole Kidman is heading back to the Owens family kitchen, where midnight margaritas, ancestral curses and sisterly chaos have been waiting nearly three decades for another chapter. With Sandra Bullock beside her once again, Practical Magic 2 brings the actresses back to the roles that became a beloved part of their cinematic histories. And ahead of the long-awaited sequel, Kidman has revealed that the magic in her own family has a rather practical application.

Sometimes the most convincing witchcraft is the kind that comes with a family story attached to it.

Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock recently sat down with Kidman’s niece, Lucia Hawley, for the UK outlet SheerLuxe, turning what could have been another routine promotional interview into a wonderfully strange family séance. Hawley, 28, began by explaining that the Kidman women “sway to the more magical side,” before revealing that their grandmother was born on Friday the 13th. Then came the question that practically demanded an Owens-style answer: What is their favorite spell?

“Love spells,” Kidman replied, before revealing a decidedly colder trick.

“But if I am a little bit upset with someone, I will write their name and put it in the freezer, ” she told SheerLuxe.  

Since playing Gillian Owens in 1998, she has moved through romantic dramas, prestige television, psychological thrillers and awards-season fare, collecting an Academy Award for The Hours and building a career that has repeatedly allowed her to reinvent herself. Her return to Gillian therefore carries an unusual kind of nostalgia: the Oscar-winning actor is stepping back into one of the roles that helped define her late-1990s screen persona.

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And now the Owens family tree is growing.

The sequel arrives nearly three decades after Griffin Dunne’s 1998 original, which initially struggled commercially before becoming the sort of cult favorite that refuses to stay buried. Nicole Kidman returns as Gillian alongside Bullock’s Sally, with Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest also returning as Aunt Frances and Aunt Jet. The new ensemble includes Joey King, Maisie Williams, Lee Pace, Xolo Maridueña and Solly McLeod. Susanne Bier directs from a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett and Kelly Marcel. 

The story is inspired by Alice Hoffman’s 2021 novel The Book of Magic, the fourth and final book in the Practical Magic series. The novel expands the mythology beyond Sally and Gillian, following three generations of Owens women as the family confronts the centuries-old curse surrounding love and magic. Sally’s daughters, Kylie and Antonia, become central to that next generation, with Kylie discovering powers of her own as the family is drawn into a dangerous attempt to finally break the curse. 

The film is scheduled to open in North American theaters on September 11, 2026, with international releases beginning September 9. Perhaps that is the real spell being cast here. Not the freezer trick, not the love potion, but the strange durability of a movie that audiences simply refused to let disappear.

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What do you think of Nicole Kidman’s favorite “freezer” spell, and are you excited to see her and Sandra Bullock return in Practical Magic 2? Share your thoughts in the comments.