2000-present
Stowe postponed her acting career in 1996 to concentrate on her family life. She settled for several years in a Texas ranch, with her daughter May and husband Brian Benben. In 1998, she came back with The Proposition and Playing by Heart, and then The General's Daughter, opposite John Travolta in 1999. In 2001, she starred in the science-fiction box office bomb Impostor. In 2002, she played Julia Moore in the war film We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson, and the box office flop action-comedy Avenging Angelo opposite Sylvester Stallone. In 2003, she starred in the thriller Octane as Senga Wilson, a single mother trying to save her teenage daughter (Mischa Barton) from a bizarre cult obsessed with blood and cars.
Stowe's onscreen appearances became increasingly rare in the 2000s, as she focused on motherhood. She occasionally appeared in some TV productions, such as Saving Milly, an adaptation of Morton Kondracke's book of the same name, of a woman diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Stowe starred in the not-picked-up Fox pilot Southern Comfort about a woman who takes over her mobster husband's business when he gets sent to prison. In 2007, she appeared in the recurring role of Dr. Samantha Kohl in Jeff Goldblum's detective drama Raines on NBC, a mid-season replacement. The series was canceled after two months. In 2009 she starred in the Lifetime movie, The Christmas Hope.
In 2011, Stowe announced her return and began playing Victoria Grayson, the glamorous and powerful matriarch of the Grayson family, on ABC's television drama series Revenge. It debuted on September 21, and was picked up for a full season by ABC on October 13. Stowe's portrayal of the character received critical praise, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for this role. In April 2012, she was listed at No. 5 in People magazine's annual Most Beautiful Woman list. The series ended in 2015 after four seasons and 89 episodes.
In May and June 2016, Stowe guest hosted primetime films on Turner Classic Movies, appearing in dozens of wraparounds on the channel. In 2019, she returned to acting starring as actress Margot Weston in the Netflix musical drama series, Soundtrack. The series was canceled after one season.
In 2025, Stowe stars in the HBO supernatural horror television series It: Welcome to Derry which is based on Stephen King's novel It (1986) and serves as a prequel to the films It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019).
In 2026, Stowe stars as the conniving, wealthy heiress, Gertrude Payne in the Netflix crime drama miniseries I Will Find You adapted from Harlan Coben's 2023 novel of the same name.
