How The Craft: Legacy Expands The Craft's Rules of Magic - Screen Rant

Warning! Spoilers for The Craft: Legacy below.

The Craft: Legacy expands upon the magical world of its predecessor, changing a few key details and the rules of magic in the process. In The Craft, magic is a sacred thing that women are born with but that's not quite the case in the sequel that changes things up to dramatic effect.

The follow up to beloved original The Craft has the same narrative bones as its predecessor. In it, outcast teen Lily (Cailee Spaeny) moves to town and navigates life as the new kid at school. Practicing witches Lourdes, Frankie and Tabby (Zoey Luna, Gideon Adlon, and Lovie Simone) spot her natural talent for the craft and recruit her to join their coven. But as they become stronger together, dark forces are on their tail.

Continue scrolling to keep reading Click the button below to start this article in quick view.

In the sequel, those dark forces come in the form of Lily's mom's boyfriend Adam (David Duchovny) who eventually reveals himself to be a powerful warlock with the ability to shapeshift and transfer magic from one person to another. This a major departure from the rules established in the first film and is a reflection of the more inclusive message that The Craft: Legacy tries to impart. These changes also imply that the series is headed down a very dark path should the talked-about expansion to the franchise happen.

The Craft: Legacy Introduces Warlocks

Throughout The Craft: Legacy, Lily never feels fully comfortable around Adam. He promotes toxic masculinity with his sons and looks down upon a boy named Timmy at their high school who killed himself. Early on, Adam attempts to assert his dominance over Lily. As Lily's powers begin to grow stronger, she grows downright uncomfortable around him. Although it's never shown to the audience, she has a dream one night that convinces her that she and her mother need to leave his house immediately. By the time they attend Timmy's funeral, Lily's powers are out of control. Her mother confronts her and starts speaking cruelly to her. Lily realizes this is a ruse, and Adam is revealed to have taken the form of her mother in order to trick her. As her new coven taught her early in the film, shape-shifting is one of the highest forms of witchcraft. Not only is he proven to be the threat Lily anticipated, but it show that Adam can practice magic.

In The Craft, there is no mention of men having the ability to practice magic. The original story is very focused on the girls in the coven. No one else is shown to have the ability to do magic besides Nancy, Sarah, Rochelle and Bonnie. It's a twisted form of female empowerment, showing the women have the power to take hold of their own destinies. One of the main storylines in The Craft sees the coven using their magic to get revenge on men who abuse and wrong them. The Craft: Legacy takes a more gentle approach to magic. The film is a reflection of the times. While the world experiences plenty of hate, much of Hollywood has begun to make strides toward making more inclusive films. Director Zoe Lister-Jones has her coven use magic to try and improve the world around them. The Craft sequel is still a feminist film, but it promotes the idea that everyone has a little magic in them.

In order to stay true to her film's ideology, Lister-Jones worked with consultants to ensure that their portrayal of magic was accurate. That means that men should be able to practice magic as well. But in what is perhaps a sly nod to the original film, a man is the vessel for the only show of dark magic in the film. This change also sets up an interesting plot point for a potential Craft 3. The world of magic was small in The Craft. There was only danger present when the members of the coven turned on each other. But The Craft: Legacy invites anyone to practice magic. That means danger can come from anywhere.

Magic can be Transferred in The Craft: Legacy

The Craft doesn't get too deep into the logistics of how magic works. When the audience is introduced to Bonnie, Nancy, and Rochelle, they had already been practicing magic and when they recognize dormant powers in Sarah, they teach her how to use them. Once a witch comes into their power, it is theirs alone. A binding spell can repress them, but the film never discusses any way to transfer powers from one person to another. The Craft: Legacy changes that in Adam's powers. When he takes on the form of Lily's mom at Timmy's funeral, he teaches Lily a way to transfer her powers to him. While the act was never completed, the film implies that two people invoking the power of Manon can make this transfer happen. It could very well be possible that this ability exists in the first film, but it was never mentioned.

This scene in The Craft: Legacy allows the film to once again double down on its message of feminism and equality. Adam's ruse almost works on Lily, but there's one thing that gives him away. When he's disguised as Lily's mother, he tells the young witch that her differences make her dangerous. Lily confidently retorts that her mother would never say that to her. Anyone is capable of magic in The Craft: Legacy, because magic doesn't discriminate. Outcasts like Lily, Tabby, Frankie and Lourdes thrive as witches because they are different. Lister-Jones really drives that message home by diversifying her Craft sequel cast even more than the original coven of witches in The Craft.

The belated Craft sequel may promote love and light, but that doesn't mean dark things aren't ahead for the witches. Expanding the rules of magic is a positive move for inclusion and feminism, but it also means the franchise's next installment will be unpredictable. In The Craft, Sarah, Nancy, Bonnie and Rochelle were the most powerful people they knew. But the sequel proves that there are more powerful witches and warlocks outside of a high school coven — and those people want Lily. With the exception of Nancy showing off in front of a boy, no one knew about the coven's power in The Craft. But as Adam's failed trick shows, people are aware of Lily's strong powers and intend to steal them. This will likely end up a prominent plot point in the next movie. The Craft: Legacy expands the world of magic in order to set up what is bound to be a thrilling showdown between witches in The Craft 3.

More: Everything We Know So Far About The Craft 3

Why TikTok Is Becoming A Popular Source For Horror Movie Content

Related Topics

About The Author

Brynne Ramella (184 Articles Published)

Brynne is a lifelong lover of movies hailing from Chicago. Ever since discovering "The Ring" at age 13, she's had a slightly sadistic love affair with horror movies. Tweet her your horror movie recommendations @brynneramella. Please — she's running out of movies to watch.