Some undetermined amount of time has passed since the gravity-defying finale of the first movie, where Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) declared her independence from the Wizard Of Oz’s animal-subjugating lies and struck out on her own, leaving a supportive but reluctant Glinda (Ariana Grande-Butera) presumably to work the system in her absence. Elphaba has been publicly vilified as the Wicked Witch Of The West by Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) and the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum); Glinda struggles to protect her friend while providing blandly uplifting encouragement as a spokeswoman for the Oz government. Meanwhile, Elphaba’s estranged sister Nessa (Marissa Bode) has become governor of Munchkinland, while Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) searches for Elphaba in hopes of protecting her from anyone else who might track her down. Then the Wizard Of Oz story starts to bleed into the overcomplicated, undramatized plot, setting Elphaba on a collision course with a familiar destiny, and the fun really starts to drain from the movie.
Some of the problems with Wicked: For Good obviously stem from its source material. This is where the first movie was able to borrow against the standard Broadway-spectacular line of credit, which all but demands a grabby, dazzling first act. Returning director Jon M. Chu obliged with a number of splashy and satisfying production numbers, boosting some mid-range Broadway songs into cinematic spectacle. For Good, on the other hand, has an even weaker selection of songs, here woven into the action with a sense of obligation rather than song-break delight or catharsis. The most memorable is the teary title song, and here, Erivo and Grande-Butera do offer some payoff from their fine first-movie work with some impressive sing-acting. But even this sorta-highlight is limited by writing (“I’ve heard it said / that people come into our lives / for a reason”) that’s basically the “Webster’s Dictionary defines…” of lyrics. The best staging, meanwhile, accompanies “The Girl In The Bubble,” a new song written for Grande-Butera, which she performs solo in a lengthy unbroken shot full of mirror tricks. When the movie zeroes in on its leads’ conflicts and heartbreak, some of that old 2024 Wicked magic flickers on the screen.
It’s endearing that Wicked: For Good works best in those smaller-scale moments, and disappointing to realize how few of them the movie parcels out. The baffling “realistic” drabness that dimmed the first movie’s colors returns here in full force, only now it feels like a motif for a story where characters and storylines smudge together with Wizard Of Oz plot points, blurring the lines between on-screen and off-screen action. Some of the more awkward tie-ins can, again, be blamed on the original production, yet Chu deserves some blame too for the sheer number of times a supporting character effectively disappears from the movie when they’re not literally on screen—and for how little emotional sense this rewriting of Oz history makes.
Indeed, history has its eyes on Oz, and For Good obviously yearns to recall the damages wrought by cultural fears in our real world. But it doesn’t do much more than a trailer’s worth of work to raise those issues, and their ultimate resolutions range from shrug-inducing to insulting. One major character death in particular results in a scene that can only be described as a slap-fight version of the duel from Revenge Of The Sith. Is this an operatic schism or slapstick? Chu is too busy lingering on a bit of visual self-plagiarism from Crazy Rich Asians to double-check. Everyone knows The Wizard Of Oz is one of the most enduring, vividly transporting experiences in American cinema, able to transcend its differences from a great work of children’s literature. Wicked: For Good spends a dismaying amount of time boldly asking the question: What if it wasn’t?
Director: Jon M. Chu
Writers: Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande-Butera, Jonathan Bailey, Marissa Bode, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum
Release Date: November 21, 2025
