What happened to Gary in Practical Magic 2? Sandra Bullock says fans "can probably guess"
Some of us have spent 28 years emotionally invested in a fictional Arizona investigator with sad, honest eyes and a lone star badge. This is not a support group, but it could be.
So when the Practical Magic 2 trailer dropped in April and Aidan Quinn's Gary Hallet was nowhere to be found — no cameo, no photo on a mantel, nothing — the fandom did the math immediately. And the math is grim.
Bullock said the quiet part at CinemaCon
Presenting the sequel with Nicole Kidman, Bullock confirmed that Sally Owens is single again, and dropped this with the weaponized breeziness of a woman who knows exactly what she's doing:
"If you know the original film, you can probably guess why."
If you know the original film, you do. The Owens family curse — courtesy of heartbroken ancestor Maria — kills any man who dares to love an Owens woman. It took Sally's father. It took her first husband, mid-bicycle ride. The 1998 movie seemed to end with the curse broken and Sally getting her happily-ever-after with Gary.
Seemed. Past tense doing a lot of work there. Early reactions from screenings ahead of the September 18 release confirm the sequel opens with Sally in mourning and the curse very much alive. Pour one midnight margarita out for Investigator Hallet.
Why they'd do this to us (a brief investigation)
- The books made them. The sequel draws on Alice Hoffman's later Owens novels, and in Hoffman's own chronology, Sally's second great love doesn't survive either. The source material was never going to hand out happy endings for free.
- No curse, no movie. The entire franchise engine is "love an Owens, sign a death warrant." A broken curse means two witches doing taxes. Restoring it gives the next generation — Joey King and Lee Pace are in this cast for a reason — something to fight.
- It's honest to the original. The first film was always grief wearing a romcom's clothes. A sequel about widowhood, again, is bleakly on brand.
The consolation prizes
Producer Denise Di Novi has spent this entire press cycle reassuring the faithful that they know precisely which hearts they're handling, telling Entertainment Weekly:
"We're not going to reinvent the wheel."
Kidman's Gillian is back, Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest return as the aunts, and the phone tree — "there's a little witch in all of us" — presumably still works. Just don't walk in expecting Gary. Some curses, apparently, get sequels too.
Previously we wrote: Taylor Swift's advice starts with "never believe anyone" — the rest is the part worth stealing
