Maisie Williams Played ‘Practical Magic 2’ Character As “Sapphic Icon” Despite Sequel Omitting Book’s LGBTQ Plot

As the Owens sisters returned to the big screen, Practical Magic 2 left a lot a material behind in the Alice Hoffman book.

Maisie Williams, who plays Antonia Owens in the sequel now in theaters, explained that she played the character as a lesbian, despite that part of her life not being made clear in the Susanne Bier-helmed adaptation of Hoffman’s The Book of Magic.

“There’s been a lot of different edits to the movie, and there was a lot of different versions of the script, but I always played Antonia as a sapphic icon,” Williams told Gay Times. “And I love that. I think it brought a real joy to the scenes when we would be talking about Gideon, because Antonia just has a completely different perspective on men altogether.”

From a script by Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett and Kelly Marcel, Practical Magic 2 sees Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) chasing Sally’s daughter Kylie (Joey King) to England, where they try to unravel an ancient family curse and save Kylie’s comatose boyfriend Gideon (Xolo Maridueña).

Whereas Practical Magic 2 explores Kylie’s love story, it sacrifices much of Antonia’s rich backstory from the 2021 novel, which reveals that she is a lesbian and gives her a love interest of her own, a lawyer named Ariel who also helps them get to the bottom of the family curse. The book also finds her pregnant with her best friend’s baby.

@gaytimes

Is Antonia a lesbian in Practical Magic 2? Does the Owens curse only affect straight people? We caught up with Maisie Williams and Joey King to find out! The highly anticipated sequel to the 1998 classic, Practical Magic, sees the return of Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as Sally and Gillian Owens, as they reunite with Sally’s daughters, Kylie and Antonia, to break their family’s centuries-old curse 🔮 #practicalmagic #lesbiansoftiktok #sapphic #interview #queertiktok

♬ original sound – GAY TIMES

Although the sequel didn’t give Antonia the romance she deserved, perhaps the third time’s a charm, if Sandra Bullock’s ideas for a trilogy come to fruition. “We’ll do a number three if this takes off. And we’ll pass the torch to the girls,” she told Vanity Fair.