Thank Goodness! Whether you’ve eagerly waited a full year for the continuation of the Wicked story or you’re ready to stop seeing pink and green everywhere you look, the wait for Wicked: For Good (2025) is finally over.
The film picks up a few years after the end of the first installment. In the time between the two parts, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) has been branded the “Wicked Witch” by Madam Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), who serves as the Ozian Press Secretary and mentor to Glinda (Ariana Grande-Butera) in her new role as the mouthpiece of the Wonderful Wizard (Jeff Goldblum).
The film debuted with $147 million in domestic box office sales, shattering the sales record for a movie based on a Broadway show that was set by the first Wicked installment last year. Despite initial fears that releasing each act as a separate movie would fatigue fans, excitement for Wicked has never been higher, largely due to the relevance the epic story has maintained in popular culture. Over the past year, following the release of the first installment, Wicked has become an inescapably popular cultural phenomenon. With over 60 brand partnerships with companies like Owala and Puma, store shelves have been flooded with pink and green.
Despite the commercial aspect of the film, the project tackled themes relevant to contemporary America, like hyper-nationalism, propaganda, and scapegoating. The parallels to American politics are uncanny, as the main conflict between the Wizard and Elphaba arises from the Wizard’s subjugation of animals, who are personified, active members of Ozian society. Elphaba’s response to this discrimination echoes anti-fascist talking points, especially in her new ballad “No Place Like Home.” In this addition, Elphaba sings to the animals, saying, “But Oz is more than just a place / It’s a promise, an idea / And I want to help make it come true.” Considering filming wrapped in January 2024, director John M. Chu and composer Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the original stage musical, clearly sought to make a statement about fascism at large. Given the recent rise in violent deportations of law-abiding immigrants and the use of misinformation by the federal government, the themes of the movie are essential to spotlight in modern America.
This messaging required serious talent to deliver these hard-hitting themes, and Chu was by no means in short supply. Leading the cast, Cynthia Erivo delivered powerhouse vocals as a mature, runaway Elphaba Throppe. Beloved songs like “No Good Deed” and “As Long As You’re Mine” show the audience a more emotional approach to Erivo’s Elphaba. However, once the music stopped, so too did her magnetism. Erivo’s acting outside of her show-stopping songs left me wanting more, as her expressions consisted of either a mere eyebrow raise or a slightly smug smirk. In Wicked (2024), this restraint was understandable given her character’s background. Elphaba Throppe was then a marginalized and insecure teenager. However, the second film should follow her transformation into a self-assured, fearless rebel. Last year, I was willing to accept her lack of expression as a deliberate choice, but Erivo’s performance in Wicked: For Good confirmed my suspicion that her vocals were doing most of the heavy lifting in her performance.
While Erivo supplements her subpar acting with an incredible voice, the same cannot be said of some of her costars. The casting of Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible and Marissa Bode as Nessarose Throppe will forever remain a stain on the legacy of the musical’s beloved characters. Already out of place alongside generation-defining performances by Grande-Butera, Erivo, and even Ethan Slater, Yeoh and Bode opted to speak rather than sing their numbers. When they did attempt to sing, both Yeoh and Bode suffered so miserably that Chu had to alter beloved numbers like “Thank Goodness” and “The Wicked Witch of the East” to accommodate their minimal ranges. With no shortage of powerhouse voices in musical theatre, these kinds of mistakes are near-inexcusable when adapting such a well-loved project.
These casting blunders are nearly made up for by Ariana Grande-Butera’s flawlessly precise portrayal of Glinda the Good. In the first part of the story, Grande-Butera was great; in Wicked: For Good, she was immaculate. The second act of the musical shows Glinda in constant internal conflict, wrestling with the villainization of her best friend and stepping into her role as a public figure who must lie about said best friend. In the striking contrast of public appearances in Oz and happenings in the Emerald City palace, we see the protective façade that Glinda has created for herself. Grande-Butera so persuasively conveys the pain Glinda feels about her complicity in the system while maintaining the composure needed to uphold her status. One strength of Grande-Butera’s was her ability to play into the movie-musical format of the film. While Broadway’s Glinda almost completely hides her inner turmoil in public appearances, Grande-Butera chose for her Glinda to subtly falter in her pretending before regaining emotional control. Grande-Butera makes these choices in Wicked: For Good that only one with the exact DNA sequence of Glinda Upland would, and she executes them with complete precision.
Another strength of the movie was Chu’s light-based storytelling. In the first part, the scenes were bright, yet not overly saturated, which helped create the idea that this was the story of the good ole days, yet the good ole days were real. However, the second part sees the camera work becoming much more vibrant and dark. The events of the second part are so devastatingly real, as are the consequences of the choices made in the first part. So much of the plot relies on overt flashbacks to the previous act’s plot, and the stark contrast between the cinematography of the two conveys the distinctness of both.
On the whole, the movie was impressively adapted from the second act of the stage show of Wicked, considering the latter half of the musical is infamously chaotic and impossible to follow. All in all, Wicked: For Good was absolutely everything and more, although it was not without its flaws. Adapting such a beloved and well-known story, it was inevitable that Chu would face backlash; however, he remained authentic to the source material and maintained the magic that fans have loved for years. Whether you’re a day-one Wicked fanatic or a casual fan, don’t hesitate to see this magical sequel—you’ll be changed for good.
