King and Williams play Kylie and Antonia, respectively, the grown daughters of Sandra Bullock’s Sally Owens
Credit: John Shearer/WireImage; Jeff Spicer/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Practical Magic 2 producer Denise Di Novi shared her thoughts on Joey King and Maisie Williams returning for more stories about the Owens women
- Di Novi said the younger actresses have chemistry comparable to Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, who star as their mom and aunt, respectively, in the new film
- Di Novi spoke with PEOPLE exclusively at the recent Practical Magic 2 press junket at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Practical Magic 2 producer Denise Di Novi is weighing in on whether audiences might see Joey King and Maisie Williams in additional Practical Magic movies following the release of the new film.
Di Novi, 70, recently caught up with PEOPLE exclusively during the new film’s press junket at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, Calif.
During the conversation, the filmmaker, who also served as a producer on the original 1998 movie, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, shared that she has high hopes that King, 27, and Williams, 29, will return for more stories about the Owens women.
Credit: Chloe Kern/FilmMagic
King and Williams play Kylie and Antonia Owens, respectively — the grown daughters of Bullock’s character, Sally Owens — in the latest installment.
“I hope Antonia and Kylie carry on the Owens story,” Di Novi told PEOPLE.
“I hope we see all of these characters again, because first of all — Joey King, Maisie Williams — I mean, it doesn’t get better than that. That combo,” she continued.
“And they love each other in real life,” she said. “They love each other in the movie. They have as equal chemistry as Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman had and have in the movie. So I think there’s more story to tell for sure.”
Di Novi added, “And I think it would be so much fun to see where Kylie and Antonia go as a few years go by. You know, when they come to [the] full fruition of womanhood and who they are … What is going to happen?”
Credit: Warner Bros.
During a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Bullock, 62 — who also served as a producer on the film alongside Kidman, 59 — said she was all for a third installment centered on the next generation.
“We’ll do a number three if this takes off, and we’ll pass the torch to the girls,” she said.
Practical Magic 2 returns to the world of the original movie, which saw Bullock and Kidman play witchy onscreen sisters reckoning with a dark mystical threat. In the new film, the sisters must confront a dark curse that threatens to unravel their family — with the help of the next generation of Owens women.
While speaking to PEOPLE at the press junket, Di Novi said that both Bullock and Kidman brought new dimensions to their characters the second time around — in part because they have lived so much more life since the release of the first film.
“They wanted to show them as women that are older, but equally vibrant, equally sexy, equally vivid in their magic and commitment to it,” she explained.
Credit: Warner Bros/Hulton Archive/Getty
“[The characters] both struggle with magic in different ways, but they are witches, and they know they’re witches,” she continued. “So I think being true to the characters and having them be people who are still yearning and learning and growing and struggling with a lot of aspects of womanhood [was important]. Being single as you get older, being a mother with her children leaving home … Is love still part of your life? Does it still fit into your life?”
“Those questions [Bullock and Kidman] wanted to deal with in a very real way,” Di Novi continued.
The producer additionally said the team behind the new movie felt “pressure” to make it even better than the first — and she thinks they achieved their goal.
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“I think it’s a deeper, funnier, more romantic, more magical, more meaningful movie than the first movie, while [still] being respectful of the first movie,” Di Novi said.
The new film is directed by Susanne Bier and co-written by original screenwriter Akiva Goldsman and Succession’s Georgia Pitchett.
Practical Magic 2 premieres in theaters on Sept. 10.
With reporting by Reggie Elzey
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