Joey King

In Practical Magic 2 (2026), Joey King’s Kylie Owens has a family curse to contend with and rather too much explanation to sit through. Akiva Goldsman and Georgia Pritchett’s screenplay asks the performers to make awkward material sound spontaneous. King and Maisie Williams, playing Antonia Owens, belong to a broader family that never becomes as compelling as Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman’s sisters. King needs better writing than this, particularly when the sugary sentiment makes it harder to believe in the people delivering it.

The move from Ramona and Beezus (2010) to The Kissing Booth (2018) and its sequels established her in family films and romantic comedy. The more interesting turn came with The Act (2019), where her portrayal of Gypsy Rose Blanchard drew critical attention for its nuance. That performance gives us a reason to expect more than an energetic response to whatever the script puts in front of her. Bullet Train (2022) and The Princess (2022) took her into action, with the former making use of the physical commitment that is one of her strengths.

Her comic energy can also become too broad, as in A Family Affair (2024). This is the limitation we would watch: a performer willing to meet physical and comic demands still needs to judge how much a scene can bear. We would like more parts that require her to hold something back, rather than continually prove that she can keep things moving.

Susanne Bier’s Practical Magic 2 gives her a different problem: even the film’s pace works against its cast. Sam Williams’s editing leaves conversations crowded while the story is slow to move, giving the younger characters little room to make an impression. We grew impatient with the repeated explanations when the family itself still failed to interest us beyond the central pair. Start with The Act if the romantic comedies have settled your opinion of King.