(Image courtesy of IMDB. “Themes of choice define the story of ‘Wicked: For Good’.”)

Benjamin Heffner
Connector Editor

Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked: For Good,” the long-awaited sequel to the 2024 film “Wicked” and based on the hit Broadway musical of the same name, will open in two weeks as early reviews indicate another successful award season.

Whereas “Wicked” covered Act I of the stage production, “Wicked: For Good” covers Act II and follows Elphaba Thropp and Glinda Upland as they embrace their new identities, Elphaba as The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda as Glinda the Good.

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande reprise their roles as Elphaba and Glinda respectively, alongside Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar, Ethan Slater as Boq Woodsman, Marissa Bode as Nessarose Thropp, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible and Jeff Goldblum as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

All the Act II songs, such as “Thank Goodness,” “As Long as You’re Mine,” and the titular “For Good” will be featured in the film, including two new songs, “Girl in the Bubble” sung by Grande, and “There’s No Place Like Home” sung by Erivo. In addition, the movie soundtrack will include “The Wicked Witch of the East,” a number that was not included in the original Broadway cast recording.

Tickets went on sale on Oct. 8 and quickly became Fandango’s biggest first-day ticket pre-sellers of 2025. Jerramy Hainline, Fandango’s EVP, said “With last year’s Wicked breaking records and captivating audiences around the world, it is no surprise that fans are racing to get their tickets to Wicked: For Good. The first film became a true cultural phenomenon bringing new generations into the world of Wicked, and it’s clear that fans can’t wait to see how the story continues on the big screen.”

At the end of the first film, audiences saw Elphaba fly off from Emerald City and the Wizard’s regime, leaving Glinda behind as all of Oz labels Elphaba as the now infamous Wicked Witch of the West. Chu describes Wicked: For Good as being all about “choices.” He said, “Who do you become when the stories you’re told, the promises you’re given, shatter in front of you? Who are you when you make a choice and you realize that choice has consequences and their hard consequences? What happens when you look at your home and it’s no longer the home that you thought it was? And that your home isn’t even built for you. At what point do you still believe in the ideas that were given to you? And can those things coexist? I think for all of us, that’s the time we’re in.”

The stories of Elphaba and Glinda will quickly turn upside down when an unexpected person arrives in Oz seeking the Wizard’s help, a young Kansas farm girl named Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto.

While Dorothy has appeared in multiple of the film trailers, Chu said that her face will not be shown, calling Dorothy a “pawn” in the Wicked universe. He said, “I didn’t want to step on who you think Dorothy is in whatever story that you came into this with. This is, after all, still Elphaba and Glinda’s journey.”

Early screening reviews for the film are positive, with critics lauding Erivo and Grande’s performances, as well as the cinematography. Variety’s Jazz Tangcay wrote on X, previously known as Twitter, “Cynthia Erivo is magnificent and get ready for Ariana Grande as she takes this performance to the next level and is a tour de force.”

Chu concludes by cautioning that the finale of Wicked: For Good contains more emotional baggage than the first film, saying, “If Part 1 is about choices, Part 2 is about consequences. Choices are difficult to make, but when you do make those choices, sometimes the result isn’t what you expect it to be.”