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Wicked: For Good
Upcoming film by Jon M. Chu From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Wicked: For Good is an upcoming American musical fantasy film directed by Jon M. Chu and written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox. The sequel to Wicked (2024), it adapts the second act of the 2003 stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman, which was loosely based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel, itself a reimagining of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation. Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum reprise their roles from the first film.[3] Set in the Land of Oz prior to and following Dorothy Gale's arrival from Kansas, the plot follows Elphaba and Glinda embracing their new respective identities as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good, and how the consequences of their actions will change their friendship and Oz forever.
Universal Pictures and Marc Platt, who both produced the stage musical, announced the film adaptation in 2012. After a long development and multiple delays, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chu was hired to direct, with Erivo and Grande cast in 2021. The adaptation was split into two parts to avoid omitting plot points and further develop the characters. Principal photography on both films began in December 2022 in England, was interrupted in July 2023 by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, and resumed and concluded in January 2024. Wicked: For Good is set for release by Universal Pictures in the United States on November 21, 2025.
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Cast
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- Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp, a misunderstood young woman born with green skin known as the Wicked Witch of the West[4][5]
- Ariana Grande as Glinda Upland, a popular young woman known as Glinda the Good[b][4][5]
- Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar, a Winkie prince and Captain of the Wizard's Guard[7]
- Jeff Goldblum as Wonderful Wizard of Oz[8]
- Marissa Bode as Nessarose Thropp, Elphaba's paraplegic younger half-sister and the Governor of Munchkinland[9]
- Ethan Slater as Boq Woodsman, a Munchkin working as a servant for Nessarose [5]
- Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, the former Dean of Sorcery at Shiz University, who works for the Wizard[10]
- Bowen Yang as Pfannee, one of Glinda's college friends who now works as one of her assistants[11][12]
- Bronwyn James as ShenShen, another one of Glinda's college friends who now works as one of her assistants[13]
- Sharon D. Clarke as the voice of Dulcibear, a talking bear and Elphaba and Nessarose's former childhood nanny[14]
Additionally, Kerry Ellis, one of the actresses who played Elphaba on stage in both the Broadway and the West End productions of the musical, will appear in an undisclosed cameo role.[15]
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Production
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Development
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Director Jon M. Chu (left) and composer Stephen Schwartz
A film adaptation for the Broadway musical Wicked was announced in 2012,[16] with scheduled release dates of December 20, 2019, December 22, 2021, December 25, 2024, and November 27, 2024.[17] After numerous delays, the film eventually secured a release date of November 22, 2024.[18] In April 2022, director Jon M. Chu announced that the adaptation would be split in two parts, saying:
As we prepared the production over the last year, it became impossible to wrestle the story of 'Wicked' into a single film without doing some real damage to it ... As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions began to feel like fatal compromises to the source material that has entertained us all for so many years. We decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one 'Wicked' movie but two! With more space, we can tell the story of 'Wicked' as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys for these beloved characters.[19]
Pre-production
In June 2022, Stephen Schwartz confirmed that a new song will be written for one of the two films:[20]
We found it very difficult to get past 'Defying Gravity' without a break ... That song is written specifically to bring a curtain down, and whatever scene to follow it without a break just seemed hugely anti-climactic ... Even as a very long single movie, it required us cutting or omitting things that we wanted to include and that we think fans of the show and the story will appreciate. What we have discussed is that changes need to be 'additive,' to use (producer) Marc Platt's term. They need to add something to the story or the characters. They can't just be changes to do something different. I feel confident that by the time the movie is made, if we all continue to have the same degree of input, I could have a conversation with anyone who has a question about any of the changes made from the stage show and justify why I think it's better for the movie.
In November 2022, Schwartz revealed that the film will include two new songs "to meet the demands of the storytelling."[21] In December 2024, Chu revealed that the film will have a much darker tone compared to the first film, and that the character of Dorothy Gale will have a more prominent role compared to the musical's second act.[22]
Filming
Principal photography began alongside Wicked on December 9, 2022, and had nearly been completed by July 2023 before production was suspended due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.[23] Both films resumed production on January 24, 2024, and concluded filming on January 26.[24] The vocals of the actors during the musical numbers were recorded live on set, particularly at the insistence of Erivo and Grande, with Academy Award-winning production sound mixer Simon Hayes collaborating with Chu on the recordings of the actors' vocals, using a variation of the same recording techniques that were implemented on Les Misérables.[25][24][26][27] Chu also cited Steven Spielberg's 1991 film Hook as a source of inspiration for the film's use of large-scale sets and practical effects to bring the many elements of the Land of Oz to life, including nine million colorful tulips planted on location to surround the Munchkinland set and an actual Yellow Brick Road paved on the ground with real mud.[28][29] Chu also cited the 1998 films Pleasantville and The Truman Show as influences on how both films thematically portray the Land of Oz, saying "It helps create this idea of the rebelliousness that this new younger generation are discovering... How far will that take everybody in Oz throughout the course of the whole story of both movies? It's an awakening of a generation. You start to see the truth about things that maybe you were taught differently."[30]
Post-production and visual effects
On February 6, 2024, it was confirmed on Twitter that Industrial Light & Magic and Framestore[31] will provide the film's visual effects with Pablo Helman serving as visual effects supervisor, and that post-production work was in progress, with Chu working remotely with editor Myron Kerstein via communication through the newly released Apple Vision Pro.[32][33][34] Editing on the film was paused during most of 2024 in order for Chu to finish post-production on the first film so he could understand how the sequel will continue the story. Post-production resumed in November 2024, immediately following the press tour and release of the first film, with editing on the film done on Avid Media Composer.[35]
On December 16, 2024, the film's official title was unveiled as Wicked: For Good, sharing its subtitle with the name of the penultimate musical number from the musical.[36] Its original title, Wicked Part Two, was retained for certain international dubs, including those in Brazilian Portuguese and Italian.[37][38]
Music
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The soundtrack album for the film will be released by Republic Records/Verve Label Group, Grande and Erivo's respective record labels. In July 2024, it was revealed that John Powell had composed the incidental underscore for the film, reprising his duties from the previous film.[39] Jeff Atmajian updated William David Brohn's original orchestrations for the songs and enlarged the orchestra from the stage version's original 23 musicians to 125 for the film. The musical's original music director Stephen Oremus will conduct the song cues, with Powell conducting the incidental score cues. Greg Wells, Oremus and Schwartz serve as music producers.[39][40][41][42] In January 2025, Wells revealed that he is in the process of recording live instrumentals, with recording scheduled to happen in May or June 2025 with the orchestra at AIR Studios, followed by mixing over the subsequent months.[43] Later that month, a home studio belonging to Wells was destroyed in the 2025 Palisades Fire, halting production.[44] The soundtrack album became available for pre-saving on June 5, 2025.[45]
Main and expected musical numbers
- "No One Mourns the Wicked" (Reprise) – Ensemble
- "Thank Goodness" – Glinda, Madame Morrible and Citizens of Oz
- "The Wicked Witch of the East" – Elphaba, Nessarose and Boq
- "Wonderful" – The Wizard and Elphaba
- "I'm Not That Girl" (Reprise) – Glinda
- "As Long as You're Mine" – Elphaba and Fiyero
- "No Good Deed" – Elphaba
- "March of the Witch Hunters" – Boq and Ozians
- "For Good" – Elphaba and Glinda
- "Finale: For Good" (Reprise) – Glinda, Elphaba and Ozians
Two new songs were written for the film to meet the demands of the storytelling. One will be for Elphaba, written in collaboration with Erivo, and the other will be for Glinda.[20][46][47]
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Changes from stage musical
Splitting the film adaptation into two parts allowed the filmmakers to expand upon the relationships between the characters, particularly Elphaba and Glinda, so that movie audiences may understand them better.[48] Actress Marissa Bode, who portrays Nessarose and uses a wheelchair in real life, revealed that the "Wicked Witch of the East" sequence will be presented differently than it is on stage to prevent the depiction of ableism.[9][49][50]
Release
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Wicked: For Good is scheduled to be released theatrically, including engagements in RealD 3D, IMAX, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX and D-Box on November 21, 2025, by Universal Pictures,[51] after previously being set for November 26, 2025, and December 25, 2025, before being moved up to avoid competition with Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash, respectively.[52]
Marketing
Exclusive work-in-progress footage from both films in the two-part adaptation, including first listens to Grande and Erivo's respective renditions of "Popular" and "Defying Gravity", was presented at CinemaCon on April 26, 2023, introduced on stage by Universal Pictures chairwoman Donna Langley.[53] The first trailer for the first film, in the form of a 60-second "First Look," premiered during Super Bowl LVIII on February 11, 2024, showing brief clips from the second part that confirmed that the film would contain new scenes to expand the plot of the musical's second act, including one involving Glinda's wedding and one of the Wizard sending Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion to Winkie Country in Oz's Western Lands to kill Elphaba.[54][55] In February 2025, Chu revealed that the first official trailer for the film would premiere sometime during the spring or early summer of 2025, after declining the offer to have it air during Super Bowl LIX due to technical difficulties surrounding the film's visual effects work.[56] The trailer eventually debuted at the 2025 edition of CinemaCon on April 2, introduced on stage by Erivo, Grande, Chu and Platt.[57][58] Following the trailer's debut at CinemaCon, the trailer was released to the public on June 4, 2025 through a Regal Cinemas-hosted fan event involving a theatrical re-release of Wicked, before debuting online afterwards.[59] On June 9, 2025, Universal reported that the trailer had been viewed 113 million times in its first 24 hours online, surpassing the 75 million views made in the same time-frame by the trailer for the first film.[60]
A musical television special, The Wicked Event Special, featuring the cast and special guests performing songs from both Wicked and Wicked: For Good live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, is scheduled to air on NBC in November 2025 to promote the film.[61][62] An episode of season 5 of Lego Masters with challenges themed to the film, aired on Fox on June 9, 2025.[63][64]
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Future
In November 2024, Schwartz and Holzman stated they are talking about the possibility of "something" more associated with Wicked, but that it would not be titled Wicked Part Three or Four. They further stated their interest in expanding the wider Wicked film universe.[65]
Since the first film's release, the adaptation overall is in the process of evolving into a media franchise, with theme park attractions based on the films currently in the works at Universal Destinations & Experiences.[66]
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See also
Notes
- Holzman is credited twice for writing the screenplay; first as a solo writer and as part of a writing team with Dana Fox.
- Glinda's full identity is given as "Glinda the Good Witch of the North" in the screenplay of the first film. It is not mentioned by that title in the film's dialogue and credits.[6]
References
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