From self-stirring cups of tea to limes in the coconut, Susanne Bier’s sequel is stuffed full of Easter eggs for fans of the 1998 classic.

Practical Magic 2: All the callbacks to the original you missed in the sequel

From self-stirring cups of tea to limes in the coconut, Susanne Bier’s sequel is stuffed full of Easter eggs for fans of the 1998 classic.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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September 12, 2026 9:20 a.m. ET

Stockard Channing in ‘Practical Magic 2’. Credit:

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

- *Practical Magic 2 *features a smattering of callbacks to the beloved 1998 original.

- The sequel, directed by Susanne Bier, arrives in theaters 28 years after the original, which was directed by Griffin Dunne from the novel by Alice Hoffman.

- From the Owens sisters leaping off the roof of their Massachusetts home to tea stirring itself by magic, here are all the callbacks, homages, and Easter eggs you missed.

Though it wasn’t an immediate hit upon its release in 1998, *Practical Magic** *has slowly but surely acquired the kind of fervent fanbase that most producers only dream of. Those fans eventually grew loud and persistent enough to be rewarded with a sequel, and *Practical Magic 2** *happily pays their loyalty back with plenty of callbacks to the original.

The first film starred Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock as Gillian and Sally Owens, sister witches living in a charming Massachusetts cottage with their zany aunts, Frances (Stockard Channing), called Franny, and Bridget (Dianne Wiest), called Jet. The Owens must call upon the full breadth of their powers, and even enlist several skeptical local townswomen to vanquish the vengeful spirit of one of Kidman’s former flames.

Nearly three decades later, *Practical Magic 2 *picks up with Gilly, Sally, Franny, and Jet, clinging as close as ever as housemates. They need each other, after all, as the curse of lovelessness cast by their ancestor, Maria Owens, has claimed the life of another of their lovers. But that doesn’t stop the next generation of Owens women from trying. Sally’s daughter Kylie (Joey King) kicks off a wild goose chase when she embarks for England to save her imperiled boyfriend (Xolo Maridueña), culminating in a harrowing battle between good and evil.

With a premise this divergent from the original, and with even more new cast demanding their fair shares of screen time (Maisie Williams, Lee Pace, and Solly McLeod also star), you may be asking yourself: how is there even time for callbacks? Setting aside the 26 additional minutes of runtime the sequel has on the original, director Susanne Bier and co-writers Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett, and Kelly Marcel have designed this Easter egg hunt with the utmost subtlety. That is until a final series of homages takes center stage.

Here are all the callbacks you may have missed in *Practical Magic 2*.

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in ‘Practical Magic 2’.

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Self-stirring tea

By the time viewers catch up with the Owens women, they’re done with love. Sally rode off into the sunset with Gary Hallet (Aidan Quinn), the rugged Arizona detective dispatched to investigate the murder of Gillian’s lover, at the end of the original film. Picking up 28 years later, Gary has also fallen victim to the curse, pushing Sally further away from the Owens’ Wiccan birthright.

She’s forbidden her sister and aunts from spilling the beans about their magic blood to Kylie and Antonia (Williams), and even tries to repress reminders of the supernatural while she’s alone. Early into the film, Sally walks into her bedroom to find a spoon stirring itself in her cup of tea. It makes for a poignant contrast to the scene in the original film, which shows a pre-traumatized Sally at peace with her powers, allowing the tea to gently stir itself.

Frozen margaritas

The *Practical Magic *movies do traffic in heavy themes — death, grief, rage, and repression. But crucially, they never *feel *heavy. That’s due in large part to the inclusion of scenes built purely for whimsy’s sake.

Exhibit A: the famous frozen margaritas. The aunts love their frozen margs, and as with their tea, they only enjoy them with the help of handy self-preparation spells. The first film includes a joyous scene that the sequel recreates nearly beat-for-beat early on, in which the core four Owens women galivant around the kitchen mixing margaritas to Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut” (more on that later).

Revisiting the recipe proved so nice that Bier had to make it twice, as the margaritas come back for a repeat showing at the end of the film, during an enchanting wedding held at the homestead.

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Nicole Kidman in ‘Practical Magic 2’.

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

The deathwatch beetle

Back to those dark themes. *Practical Magic 2 *really amps them up.

The sequel sends two core characters down shocking paths, leaving the rest reeling with grief. In the first film, the Owens witches knew when someone was about to die by the telltale buzzing of the deathwatch beetle. It came for Billy (Goran Visnjic), Gillian’s erratic ex-lover, and it came for Michael (Mark Feuerstein) too, Sally’s husband and the father of their two children.

In *Practical Magic 2*, it comes for two of the Owens’ own.

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Stevie Nicks on the soundtrack

It really wouldn’t be a *Practical Magic *movie without the spellbinding stylings of Stevie Nicks. The self-professed witchy woman headlined the first film’s soundtrack, recording for the first time her own version of “If You Ever Did Believe,” a song she wrote during Fleetwood Mac’s *Rumours *era and eventually gave to Louise Goffin. She also lent a new recording of the classic Fleetwood Mac song “Crystal,” with Sheryl Crow singing backup vocals.

Nicks returns for *Practical Magic 2 *with a similarly spare re-recording of an even bigger Fleetwood Mac hit — “Landslide.” An older, wiser Nicks croons about time making you bolder and children getting older during a poignant scene at the beginning of the film, after the deathwatch beetle first makes itself heard.

Sandra Bullock, Maisie Williams, Joey King, and Nicole Kidman in ‘Practical Magic 2’.

You put the lime in the coconut

The midnight margaritas scene, also known as the “lime in the coconut” scene, is many* *fans’ favorite from *Practical Magic*. And for good reason — Kidman, Bullock, Channing, and Wiest’s uninhibited joy as they cavort around, slosh together drinks, and sing along to Nilsson’s kooky classic is infectious.

The writers behind the sequel wisely found another way to pipe the song into the film, having the characters listen to it with the audience, unlike the “Landslide” scene, where the music merely soundtracks the sequence.

In *Practical Magic 2*, “Coconut” replays at that final wedding scene. The Owens women hit the dance floor, more frozen margs in hand, and cut a rug while bellowing out the lyrics.

The roof jump

If you made it 129 minutes in *Practical Magic 2 *and thought, *What, no roof jump?* you aren’t alone. Nicks’ music may define the sound of films, and midnight margarita dancing to “Coconut” may provide their emotional center, but the image of the Owens women dressed in cartoonish witch costumes, leaping off the roof of their home and gliding nonchalantly down to the ground is without doubt the defining image of the original.

Of course Bier, Goldsman, Pritchett, and Marcel had to carry it over for the sequel. Like the second round of margs and the “Coconut” dance, the *Practical Magic 2 *roof jump occurs during the closing wedding scene. But the jump is saved especially for last.

After the ceremony, Gillian, Sally, and her daughter ascend to the pinnacle of the Owens cottage, but this time in wedding clothes. They raise their umbrellas and take the leap, their clothes turning partly black as if morphing into witches’ cloaks as they hover down to terra firma.

*Practical Magic 2 *is now in theaters.

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