diff --git a/src/sql/magic.py b/src/sql/magic.py
index 0384e6077..2f25c4252 100644
--- a/src/sql/magic.py
+++ b/src/sql/magic.py
@@ -43,9 +43,6 @@
 from sql.error_handler import handle_exception
 from sql._current import _set_sql_magic
 
-from jinja2 import Template
-
-
 from ploomber_core.dependencies import check_installed
 
 
@@ -405,7 +402,7 @@ def interactive_execute_wrapper(**kwargs):
         user_ns = self.shell.user_ns.copy()
         user_ns.update(local_ns)
 
-        line = Template(line).render(user_ns)
+        line = util.expand_args(line, user_ns)
 
         command = SQLCommand(self, user_ns, line, cell)
         # args.line: contains the line after the magic with all options removed
diff --git a/src/sql/magic_cmd.py b/src/sql/magic_cmd.py
index 163a062e3..024856ae4 100644
--- a/src/sql/magic_cmd.py
+++ b/src/sql/magic_cmd.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 import sys
 import argparse
 import shlex
-from jinja2 import Template
 
 from IPython.core.magic import Magics, line_magic, magics_class, no_var_expand
 from IPython.core.magic_arguments import argument, magic_arguments
@@ -14,7 +13,7 @@
 from sql.cmd.snippets import snippets
 from sql.cmd.connect import connect
 from sql.connection import ConnectionManager
-from sql.util import check_duplicate_arguments
+from sql.util import check_duplicate_arguments, expand_args
 
 try:
     from traitlets.config.configurable import Configurable
@@ -74,8 +73,7 @@ def _validate_execute_inputs(self, line):
         if line == "":
             raise exceptions.UsageError(VALID_COMMANDS_MSG)
         else:
-            user_ns = self.shell.user_ns.copy()
-            line = Template(line).render(user_ns)
+            line = expand_args(line, self.shell.user_ns.copy())
             # directly use shlex since SqlCmdMagic does not use magic_args from parse.py
             split = shlex.split(line, posix=False)
             command, others = split[0].strip(), split[1:]
diff --git a/src/sql/magic_plot.py b/src/sql/magic_plot.py
index 53170e98f..8bf77836f 100644
--- a/src/sql/magic_plot.py
+++ b/src/sql/magic_plot.py
@@ -82,12 +82,10 @@ def execute(self, line="", cell="", local_ns=None):
         Plot magic
         """
 
-        user_ns = self.shell.user_ns.copy()
+        util.expand_args(line, self.shell.user_ns.copy())
 
         cmd = SQLPlotCommand(self, line)
 
-        util.expand_args_cmd(cmd.args, user_ns)
-
         if len(cmd.args.column) == 1:
             column = cmd.args.column[0]
         else:
diff --git a/src/sql/util.py b/src/sql/util.py
index 31e501598..2c3837569 100644
--- a/src/sql/util.py
+++ b/src/sql/util.py
@@ -578,7 +578,7 @@ def enclose_table_with_double_quotations(table, conn):
     return _table
 
 
-def expand_args_cmd(args, user_ns):
+def expand_args(line, user_ns):
     """
     Function to substitute command line arguments
     with variables defined by user in the IPython
@@ -586,32 +586,11 @@ def expand_args_cmd(args, user_ns):
 
     Parameters
     ----------
-    args : argparse.Namespace,
-        object to hold the command line arguments.
+    line : str,
+        input text after the magic
 
     user_ns : dict,
         User namespace of IPython kernel
     """
 
-    for attribute in vars(args):
-        value = getattr(args, attribute)
-        if value:
-            if isinstance(value, list):
-                substituted_value = []
-                for item in value:
-                    if (
-                        isinstance(item, str)
-                        and item.startswith("{{")
-                        and item.endswith("}}")
-                    ):
-                        substituted_value.append(Template(item).render(user_ns))
-                    else:
-                        substituted_value.append(item)
-                setattr(args, attribute, substituted_value)
-            else:
-                if (
-                    isinstance(value, str)
-                    and value.startswith("{{")
-                    and value.endswith("}}")
-                ):
-                    setattr(args, attribute, Template(value).render(user_ns))
+    return Template(line).render(user_ns)