Why Aren’t Evan Rachel Wood and Alexandra Artrip in ‘Practical Magic 2’? Their Reactions to the Recasting

Evan Rachel Wood and Alexandra Artrip, who played Sandra Bullock’s daughters in Practical Magic, were recast with Maisie Williams and Joey King for the sequel without being asked to return.The switch-up garnered mixed reactions from the original actors, who separately weighed in on social media.Director Susanne Bier stated the recast was required because the story’s timeline placed the characters as recent college graduates, making the original actors unsuitable for the roles.The Owens women are officially back on our screens thanks to Practical Magic 2—just not how we remember them. Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock have officially reprised their roles as Gillian and Sally Owens. But you may have noticed that Sally’s daughters, Antonia and Kylie, have been recast with different stars.In the original 1998 movie, Evan Rachel Wood and Alexandra Artrip played Sally’s on-screen daughters. Now, they’ve each shared how they really feel about being replaced by Maisie Williams and Joey King in the sequel, and their reactions couldn’t be more different.According to Entertainment Weekly, Evan seemingly threw shade at the movie’s original cast and crew on her September 1 Instagram Stories.“I am getting asked about this a lot, so l’ll just clear it up now; I was not asked to come back and be in the Practical Magic sequel,” she wrote at the time, later adding that there’s no bad blood between her and Joey, who stepped into the role.“I really appreciated Joey King reaching out to me because no one who worked on the original film did. She’s a sweetheart,” she added.Ron Galella, Ltd.//Getty ImagesEvan in 1998.Jamie McCarthy//Getty ImagesEvan in 2026.As for Alexandra, who played Kylie in the ’98 flick, she also took to Instagram to address negativity surrounding the recasting a few days after Evan’s reaction.“I love hearing your stories and connections to the film, but I get comments like this a lot, and I see them going on a lot of the content around the sequel,” she said in a video shared on September 3.“I think the sentiment is right; people are trying to show support for Evan and myself and the original film and everything it’s meant to so many people, but I just don’t want my stuff to be a space for negativity. Maisie and Joey are lovely actresses, and I’m sure the production team did what they thought was best for the film to be successful,” she continued.Speaking of the production team, the movie’s director, Susanne Bier, claimed that new actors had to step into the roles of Kylie and Antonia Owens for the sequel’s timeline to make sense.“It was not a personal thing,” she explained 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.”Nicole and Sandra have yet to publicly address Evan and Alexandra’s recasting, if at all.