Lee Pace joined ‘Practical Magic 2’ as Ian Wright, a historian of magic and the love interest of Sandra Bullock’s Sally Owens, with the sequel opening in US cinemas in the week of Thursday, 10 September 2026.
The sequel brings back Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the Owens sisters, 28 years after the 1998 original, and Pace talked through his part in an interview with anchor Craig Melvin, as reported by TODAY.
He called it a “privilege” to work alongside the two leads.
The Lee Pace ‘Practical Magic 2’ role, explained
Ian Wright is an academic who studies the history of magic, which puts him opposite a family that has spent generations living it.
The character becomes the love interest of Sally Owens, the Bullock role that anchored the 1998 film, and Pace kept the details of that romance close.
What he did offer was a two-word read on the chemistry. Pace described the dynamic between his character and Bullock’s as a “good flirt”, which tells you roughly where the sequel parks the pair without spoiling how it plays out on screen.
He was named in the cast when the first trailer arrived in June 2026, with no word then on his role.
He was far more forthcoming about the film itself, which he had been keeping under wraps. Speaking to Melvin, Pace framed the release as a relief as much as a launch, and he sounded ready for audiences to stop taking his word for it.
“The movie’s a really great time, so I’m excited for people to finally see what we’ve been working on.”
Why Lee Pace keeps landing in fantasy worlds
Pace is no stranger to a world with rules of its own, having spent a stretch of his career in The Hobbit franchise, and he had a theory about why audiences keep showing up for stories about creatures and covens.
He put the appeal down to permission to switch off.
“When you’re thinking about elves or vampires or witches, in this case, it gives you the opportunity to relax and have a good time.”
That was only half of it, though. Pace argued that the distance fantasy creates is exactly what lets a viewer look inward, and he said the genre “gives you the opportunity to think about your own life” while you are busy watching somebody else’s.
The original Practical Magic arrived in 1998 and found its real audience long after cinemas were done with it, growing into a cult favourite carried by Bullock and Kidman as sisters born into a family curse. Its autumnal, candle-lit mood turned it into an annual rewatch for a generation that was too young for it first time round.
What is next for ‘Practical Magic 2’ in cinemas
South Africa still has no local release date for Practical Magic 2 and no streaming home attached to it at the time of publishing, so the wait here carries on.
The film keeps running on US screens, where Pace’s Ian Wright gets to make his case to the Owens household in front of a paying audience.
