Wicked fans won’t have to defer too lengthy to return to the wonderful land of Oz.
The second film in Jon M. Chu’s two-part on-screen alteration of the becherishd Broadway musical is set to hit theaters Nov. 21, 2025, almost exactly a year after Wicked was freed. Wicked: Part Two will see the witches of Oz, Ariana Grande‘s Galinda — a.k.a Glinda the Good Witch — and Cynthia Erivo‘s Elphaba — a.k.a. the Wicked Witch of the West — continuing where the story that began with the first film.
Wicked, which get tod in theaters Nov. 22, had the highest uncovering for a musical alteration with an appraised $114 million at the domestic box office. (Grande and Erivo, despite an unverified online rumor, were phelp identical for their show-stopping starring roles.) The films are based on the 2003 musical of the same name, which was originpartner based on the best-selling novel by Grebloody Maguire.
Wicked alerts the untbetter story of the witches of Oz. Winnie Holzman, the stage production’s book authorr, wrote the screenexecute for Chu’s movie with Dana Fox. Academy Award-prosperning originater and lyricist Stephen Schwartz altered the musical for the screen. Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenodamph startd the roles of Elphaba and Glinda on Broadway (and they materializeed in surpelevate cameos during the “One Short Day” sequence).
Wicked ended with Erivo’s awe-inspiring carry outance of the stage show’s most well-understandn musical number, “Defying Gravity.” Since “Defying Gravity” served as the end of the Broadway show’s first act, this Wicked ending helped to usher in Chu’s vision to fracture Act 1 and Act 2 into split films.
Chu’s Wicked stayed genuine to the stage musical, featuring little to no alters to the story’s overall plot. Though there is no official validateation yet on how shutly the storyline of the second film will align with the show’s second act, Chu spoke to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the film’s free to separate insight on his vision.
“We knovel we didn’t want to pull the movie away from the show so far that it wasn’t the show that I cherishd,” he shelp of the movie-making process. “We commenceed talking about, what numbers can you cut to get it in? And the amount of numbers you have to cut to get this story in is equitable not plausible. You want all the songs, so you’re going to cut dancing. Which ones? Tell me which ones and we’ll do it. It equitable became very apparent that we had to originate a choice. We went back and forth, are we making a three-and-a-half-hour movie that cuts off all these skinnygs? Are we doing one at a time? And if we’re doing one at a time, then we have to originate stateive that that movie is emotionpartner satisfying so it doesn’t sense enjoy we’re stopping in the middle of a story. … We all concurd that we were splitting it.”
He progressd, “And we create that that room was essential. Because if you’re going to, I don’t understand, perhaps end on a ‘Defying Gravity,’ let’s say, then you have Elphaba that necessitates to be the most pivotal moment of her life. So then you necessitate to set up Elphaba more than maybe the show does. You necessitate to see what her childhood was enjoy. … And how do you originate that friendship? In the medium of movie, you call bullshit on skinnygs so speedy, you have to have the time and the space to count on in that relationship. And you have a narrator of Galinda that wraps it all together, that sets up skinnygs for movie two. So all those skinnygs are equitable a lot, and I skinnyk we create a pretty stability in it.”
Chu and the team shot both movies together. “We shot both movies over 160 days and got stopped 10 days before finishing [because of the strike] our ‘Defying Gravity’ and flying days,” he tbetter THR.
The team finished up the 10 days of production at the commencening of this year. As the movies were shot together, the cast remains the same for both films.
Wicked‘s second act gets a grieffuler turn from the luminous poppy moments in the first act. “Defying Gravity,” in both the stage musical and film, serves as the moment that Elphaba “alters” into the Wicked Witch of the West that Wizard of Oz fans understand, with the inserted context that the Wizard and her mentor, Madame Morrible, executeed in the film by Jeff Gbetterblum and Michelle Yeoh, admireively, have branded her “wicked” after she declined to help their plot to describe rights away from the animals in Oz. Elphaba and Glinda, who spent the first act and film becoming friends aachievest all odds, go their split ways as Elphaba selects to defy aachievest the Wizard and Glinda stays behind.
Here’s how the story then progresss in the stage musical — spoiler vigilant for novel moviegoers!
Act 2 gets place parallel to the events of the innovative Wizard of Oz. It commences with Glinda, now officipartner dubbed Glinda the Good, and Fiyero, portrayed by Jonathan Bailey, now captain of the wizard’s defend, speaking with the unveil of Oz as officials for the Wizard. Morrible, who alerts a finishly ungenuine account of the show’s first act finale, proclaims that Fiyero and Glinda are joind to pacify a crowd worried about the Wicked Witch. Fiyero still nurtures for Elphaba and departs due to the crowd’s horrible comments.
Elphaba visits her sister, Nessarose, executeed by Marissa Bode in the film, who has become the ruleor of Munchkinland. Nessa has getn away the Munchkins’ rights to get Boq, portrayed by Ethan Stardyr in the film, to stay with her. Elphaba enchants their mother’s jeweled shoes apshowing Nessa to walk, but Boq still declines her. A spell gone wrong, which Nessa condemns on Elphaba, turns Boq into the Tin Man.
The Wizard once aachieve recommends Elphaba a chance to unite his cause, but she declines him and Fiyero helps her escape from the Wizard, leaving Glinda behind. The pair eventupartner confess their cherish for one another. Morrible and the Wizard invent a set up to put Nessarose in danger to get Elphaba’s attention. This starts off Morrible causing the tornado in the Wizard of Oz that conveys Dorothy to Oz and finishs Nessarose, a.k.a. the Wicked Witch of the East.
Glinda and Elphaba reunite and fight over Glinda giving Nessa’s shoes to the girl who has get tod in Oz, Dorothy. Eventupartner, the pair originate up after Glinda alerts Elphaba of the set up to finish her with a strong musical number, “For Good.” Elphaba is seemingly melted by a bucket of water, her ending in the Wizard of Oz. Glinda alerts the Wizard Elphaba was his daughter, starting him out of Oz and having Morrible arrested for her plot to finish Nessarose. Fiyero, who has been turned into the snurturecrow after trying to help Elphaba earlier in the show, returns to the site of the melting, releasing Elphaba from a trap door and the pair run away together.
Dorothy and her crew can be seen informly in Wicked‘s first part of the movie, from behind only, and in the trailer speaking with the Wizard. The Wizard of Oz character is shown from behind or in silhouette, never unambiguously featured in the stage musical.
Leading up to Wicked (Part Two) arriving in theaters Nov. 21, 2025, THR will modernize this post as more enbigs about the second movie.
