The wait is finally over. The story Jon M. Chu began last November with the award-winning “Wicked,” gets its ending as the second part, “Wicked: For Good,” starts its theatrical release this weekend. As you can guess from my title, the ending isn’t good enough to justify two movies.

You might have forgotten what was happening almost exactly a year ago in that two-hour 40-minute first film. I spent time last year and this, comparing divas sing two songs from “Wicked.”  I’ve posted those videos below. Why that’s important will come into this discussion later.

Wicked

The film “Wicked,”  like the musical, begins with a scene that draws from the 1939 film, “The Wizard of Oz.” We’re in Oz and the citizens of Munchkinland are celebrating the death of the Wicked Witch of the West. Glinda (Ariana Grande) joins them. A child asks Glinda if it’s true she was once a friend of the Wicked Witch of the West, and the film flashes back.

Before becoming the Wicked Witch of the West, an oddly child was known as Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo). Although purportedly the daughter of the governor of Munchkinland (Andy Nyman) and his wife (Courtney-Mae Briggs), she’s actually the result of a fling her mother had with a traveling salesman. Born with green skin, she’s ostracized, but from childhood she has displayed telekinetic powers. Elphaba and Glinda meet when Elphaba accompanies her younger sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), to Shiz University. When Elphaba displays her powers, the Dean of Sorcery Studies, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), takes an interest in her and asks her to enroll. Glinda, hoping to study with Morrible, ends up sharing her private room with Elphaba. Also arriving on the first day of class is the swoon-worthy bad boy Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey). While Glinda and Elphaba swoon for Fiyero, Nessarose falls for Boq (Ethan Slater). Boq is kind, but he loves Glinda.

After some snubbing and mean girl antics, Elphaba and Glinda become friends. Through Elphaba’s insistence, Glinda is also able to study with Morrible. Elphaba is drawn to another teacher, Dr. Dillamond (voiced by Peter Dinklage but movements by Luisa Guerreiro), a goat who speaks, but is also one of the last animal professors as prejudice against animals is growing. Dillamond is eventually forced out. When his replacement Prof. Nikidik (Colin Michael Carmichael) demonstrates a new technology that prevents animals from speaking, Elphaba casts a spell, freezing all of her classmates, but Fiyero. Together Elphaba and Fiyero free lion cub used in Nikidik’s demo and release him into the forest.

News of Elphaba’s telekinetic powers reaches the Wizard of Oz and she receives an invitation to an audience. Taking Glinda with her, Elphaba and Glinda meet with the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum). Urged on by the Wizard and Morrible, Elphaba uses the Grimmerie spell book to give the Wizard’s monkey guards wings. Elphaba realizes that the Wizard and Morrible are behind the anti-animal campaign and subsequent oppression of the animals. Stealing the Grimmerie, she flees. Although Glinda follows, Glinda is too afraid to join Elphaba, who, using a spell, enchants a broom and uses it to fly away.

Glinda is taken into custody by the guards, but ends up in the company of Morrible. Fiyero leaves Shiz. Elphaba’s supposed father suffers a fatal heart attack.

Part of the problem with breaking up a musical is that you lose momentum. In form, “Wicked” as a stage musical has a strong first act with two songs that gained popularity: “Popular” and “Defying Gravity.” There is no song in the second act that rivals those two and the musical doesn’t end with a rousing chorus like “Oklahoma!” How the stage musical “Wicked” works is that you are left with the high of a defiant Elphaba flying away, leaving Galinda/Glinda behind. You have about 15 minutes to recover and then come into the scene change that takes us forward into a new situation. Elphaba, Glinda and Fiyero are no longer at Shiz University and neither is Elphaba’s sister Nessarose. They are making their futures.  Although the time jump is unspecified, the lion cub has become an adult, Fiyero has become a captain of the guards and Glinda has risen into a prominent position in Oz under the guidance of our villainess Madame Morrible. The first act runs about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Act 2 is about one hour. The total runtime is 2 hours and 45 minutes, including the intermission.

Wicked for Good

The total runtime for the film “Wicked” is 2 hours and 40 minutes; the runtime for “Wicked for Good” is 2 hours and 17 minutes.

How has the director Jon M. Chu and writers Winnie Holzman (who wrote the book for the original Broadway musical)  and Dana Fox expanded the second act? First, the original composer Stephen Schwartz wrote two new songs.

Time is spent with CGI wonders as we see Oz has become a cruel place where animals are abused to help build the yellow brick road, but Elphaba has become a one-person resistance fighter, freeing animals when she can. Because of this, she’s become known as the Wicked Witch of the West and Morrible and the Wizard are churning out propaganda. Elphaba seems pretty safe in her digs, a pretty fantastic treehouse.

As captain of the guards, Fiyero is determined to catch Elphaba, but Morrible and the Wizard are determined to combine his charisma and former popular girl Glinda’s into a winning PR package. Fiyero doesn’t even have to pop the question.  Soon after, Morrible presents Glinda with her “magic” bubble vehicle, the engagement of Fiyero and Glinda is announced, much to the surprise of Fiyero.

But how do we get the Wicked Witch of the East?  Nessarose, has inherited the governorship of Munchkinland and her right hand man is Boq. Nessarose is desperate to keep Boq with her.  Boq sees the red flags and wants to get away from the controlling Nessarose. When Elphaba visits her with the magical book, Nessarose decides to seal the deal with Boq, but she reads the spell wrong. Elphaba can’t erase the incantation, but she can save Boq from dying.

After this botched meeting with Nessarose, Elphaba visits Emerald City, intent on freeing the flying monkeys. The Wizard is there and slyly frees the monkeys from their cage. He almost convinces Elphaba to work with him, but she discovers that the Wizard has imprisoned other animals. Freeing them she escapes with the help of Fiyero.

Eventually, this story will work its way back to the beginning of the first film, but I don’t want to spoil some of the additions. What I will say is that the script provides more opportunity for Ariana Grande to show Glinda’s arc toward becoming brave and truly good. What it doesn’t show is the development of any kind of romantic relationship between Glinda and Fiyero and Fiyero and Elphaba. Because “Wicked for Good” was filmed at the same time as “Wicked,” visually it suffers from the same problems with different types of lens flare.

Neither one of the two new songs, “No Place Like Home” (performed by Erivo) and “The Girl in the Bubble,” rise to the catchy hooks of “Defying Gravity” and “Popular.” Sure, it’s still glorious to hear both Erivo and Grande sing, but their performances can’t carry the emotional rush of the first act to sweep us off our feet to the ending. Notice that as of today, Universal Pictures has not released sing-along videos for either new song. None of the dance numbers (by choreographer Christopher Scott) is as infectiously inventive and fun as “Dancing Through Life.” Instead of that emotional high to carry the audience forward, there’s only pale memory.

Should one be able to see these two films back-to-back, I think the length would work against the film. There are lovely costumes by Paul Tazewell, sets by Lee Sandales and CGI animals. Of course, I would love to see a display of the new costumes for Grande’s Glinda, Yeoh’s Morrible and Bailey’s Fiyero.  Yet as a stand-alone film, it fails. As a musical, it falters. As movie magic, there’s certainly beauty in the songs, performances, costumes and obvious friendships that developed on and off set, but that’s not enough to justify two films.

“Wicked: For Good” had its world premiere 4 November 2025 in Brazil. It is scheduled for theatrical release in the US on 21 November 2025.