Wicked for Good

The second part, WICKED for Good, is brilliant and moving. This shorter film offers a more in-depth world, more developed minor characters, and more intense dramatic moments. Since both films were shot simultaneously, the same team is at the helm, under the direction of Jon M. Chu. This review is guaranteed spoiler-free.

Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), known as the Wicked Witch of the West, lives in exile, hidden in the Woods of Oz, continuing her fight for the freedom of the silenced animals and trying to reveal the truth about the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum). Glinda lives in the palace in the Emerald City, under the orders of Madam Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). She is tasked with bringing joy and comfort to the land of Oz, reassuring its people.

Wicked is based on the 2003 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman, adapted from Gregory Maguire's bestselling 1996 novel, itself inspired by Victor Fleming's 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, an adaptation of Frank Baum's 1900 novel. For this adaptation, the studio once again called upon Stephen Schwartz. The film's soundtrack, which he created with composer John Powell, is amazing. Winnie Holzman co-wrote the screenplay with Dana Fox. While the first film dealt with the choices we make, the second explores the consequences of those choices. We are no longer in school, but in a society with a political system. Elphaba, true to her values, is ready to sacrifice her own dreams and hopes to fight against the oppression of animals. The stakes are thus more complex. Through its answers, this second part is even subversive. The film delves deeper into the theme of friendship between Glinda and Elphaba, exploring betrayal, pain, and loss, but also forgiveness and love. The latter is also present, highlighting the importance of seeing beyond appearances, and conversely, its devastating effect when one clings to a love that doesn't exist. This story of love and friendship is particularly moving.

Watching this film in its original version allows you to appreciate the performances of the two lead actresses. Their diva voices were recorded live on set at their request. This facilitates the transition from speaking to singing. Often in musicals, when the song begins, the viewer feels like they're watching a music video, then the dialogue resumes and we return to reality. With this method, the experience is much more immersive and fluid for the audience. In terms of acting, Cynthia Erivo is all restraint and gravitas. Ariana Grande plays with the cliché of the ditzy blonde. Their tandem carries the film. The other performers, while perhaps less vocally brilliant, are believable in their character development. Jonathan Bailey reprises his part as Fiyero, the once carefree prince, now a man of restraint and determination. Jeff Goldblum, also a jazz pianist, delivers a brilliant performance of "Wonderful," seamlessly blending jazzy movements with breathtaking moments of levitation. Director Jon M. Chu and choreographer Christopher Scott have enhanced the film's expressiveness, both emotionally and physically.

The art direction is even more magnificent. Costume designer Paul Tazewell and production designer Nathan Crowley both won an Oscar for the first film. The characters' evolution is reflected in the costumes, sets, and lighting. Elphaba now wears pants and a superhero-style coat. Glinda is dressed in haute couture with her organza, silk, and tulle dresses, her corsage adorned with iridescent glass beads and hand-embroidered crystals. While the former, ostracized, lives in the shadows, the latter is bathed in a light typical of the musicals'golden age. The landscapes and buildings echo their decisions. Glinda now resides in a high-rise apartment in the city, highlighting both her importance and her isolation. The production designer drew inspiration from 1930s Art Deco. It's a truly beautiful piece of work.

None of this would have been possible without the talent of director Jon M. Chu, who skillfully managed  hundreds of technicians working across seventy-three sets, seventeen soundstages, five exterior sets, and three filming locations. The film was shot at Elstree Studios and Warner Bros. Studios, near London. Filming lasted 155 days, or just over five months. Then came the editing process, with over 250 hours of footage, to deliver five hours of film, running two hours and forty minutes and two hours and eighteen minutes. Hats off to the director! I loved it. Wicked 2 is THE entertainment of the holiday season that will delight children and adults.

Wicked: For Good
Directed by Jon M. Chu
Written by Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox
Based on Wicked by Stephen Schwartz, Winnie Holzman and Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Produced by Marc Platt, David Stone
Starring Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum
Cinematography: Alice Brooks
Edited by Myron Kerstein
Music by John Powell, Stephen Schwartz
Production companies: Universal Pictures, Marc Platt Productions
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release dates: November 4, 2025 (Suhai Music Hall), November 19, 2025 (France), November 21, 2025 (United States)
Running time: 137 minutes

Seen on November 12, 2025 at Le Grand Rex cinema, Infinite theater

Sabine's Mark:

In Wicked: For Good, director Jon M. Chu returns to Oz with a surer hand and a much richer emotional palette, creating a second chapter that fully embraces the darker, more complex terrain of Act II while continuing to revel in the lavish spectacle that made last year's installment a global phenomenon. This time around, however, Oz seems bruised: a society steeped in propaganda, consumed by fear, and swept away by the illusions peddled by the Wizard, played by Jeff Goldblum, and his devious accomplice, Michelle Yeoh, as Madame Morrible. If Wicked was a dazzling welcome to this world, Wicked: For Good is the moment when its sparkle begins to fade, revealing a story that is both politically unexpected and deeply personal. What is striking is the confidence with which Jon M. Chu uses the film's extended runtime to explore not only the events of the original Wizard of Oz myth, but also the subtleties of image, manipulation, and the fragility of goodness. Oz's beloved “bubble” is not magical, but mechanical; we discover that Glinda's sparkling personality was designed from the beginning. These revelations not only serve the plot, they make Oz strangely familiar, a place where truth is optional and spectacle is everything.

The weight of this illusion rests entirely on Ariana Grande's shoulders, and the film becomes, often surprisingly, as much Glinda's journey as Elphaba's. Ariana Grande embodies the character with much more nuance than in the first film, where effervescent comic timing dominated. Here, she draws on Glinda's desperate and discreet need to be adored, a need born at a birthday party in her childhood, recreated in a flashback filled with anecdotes that are both funny and painfully revealing. Surrounded by applause, privilege, and pastel decor, Glinda spends the first part of the film convincing herself that she is doing good, while the Wizard's regime uses her image as a weapon. But when she performs “The Girl in the Bubble,” wandering around her Art Deco penthouse overflowing with decorations, Grande strikes a balance between pastiche and heartbreak; her voice trembles, as if someone is beginning to see the mechanics behind her own myth. It is this dawning realization, not magic, that transforms her into a true leader by the end of the film.

While Glinda learns to face the truth, Elphaba, played by Cynthia Erivo, begins the film by rejecting it, at least the version Oz has chosen for her. Cynthia Erivo now embodies her with imposing weariness, like someone who has exhausted all means of hope in a world determined to misunderstand her. When she bursts onto the screen on her broomstick during an early rescue of enslaved animals building the yellow brick road, she has the presence of a folk hero, a vigilante whose reputation grows faster than the truth can catch up with her. One of the film's most moving sequences shows her stumbling upon a caravan of frightened animals preparing to flee Oz; the way Erivo calms them, encouraging them through the new bittersweet ballad “No Place Like Home,” almost feels like a reversal of Judy Garland's iconic line. Here, home is a place worth fighting for, even if it doesn't love you back. In these moments, Elphaba becomes less of a wicked witch and more of a symbol of resistance, a woman who chooses to conform to the narrative written for her because all other paths are closed to her.

But the moral divide between the two witches, one shaped by privilege, the other by persecution, deepens as the propaganda surrounding them intensifies. Fiyero is at the heart of this divide, a handsome captain of the guard torn between his duty to Glinda and his undeniable connection to Elphaba. Cynthia Bailey doesn't have as many spectacular numbers as the audience might wish, but the intimacy he brings to “As Long as You're Mine,” performed in the moonlit forest that Elphaba now considers her home, transforms this number into arguably the most sensual and human moment in the entire film. His slow realization that he can no longer continue to live as an accessory in the Wizard's story adds an unexpected emotional dimension to the love triangle. And through him, For Good subtly reinforces one of its strongest themes: in a world built on lies, choosing honesty is the most courageous act of all.

The narrative thread involving Nessarose, Elphaba's sister, played with poignant fragility by Marissa Bode, is the film's weak point, not because of Bode's performance, which is deeply moving, but because the script has to strike a balance between paying homage to the theatrical show and correcting its discriminatory pitfalls. Her journey, intertwined with that of Boq, the loyal and heartbreaking character played by Ethan Slater, contains some of the film's darkest twists and turns, culminating in the origins of the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, which are miniature tragedies in their own right. These moments sometimes struggle to find their place in Chu's maximalist aesthetic, but when the film takes a step back and allows for quiet moments, particularly in the devastating confrontation between Nessarose and Elphaba, we understand how important these parallel stories are in redefining Oz not as a wonderful land, but as a place where those without power are easily cast aside.

While the film sometimes threatens to collapse under the weight of its own world-building, its emotional compass remains steady. This stability comes in large part from the production itself: Nathan Crowley's sets, Paul Tazewell's sumptuous costumes, and Alice Brooks's grandiose cinematography once again combine to form a visual language that is both MGM spectacle and modern political satire. A particularly memorable anecdote is the way Madame Morrible and the Wizard stage public announcements: spotlights, mechanical contraptions, and flashy illusions designed to distract the masses. Seeing the Ozians applaud as animals lose their rights or Glinda's bubble descends in orchestrated glory is a little uncomfortable. It's no coincidence that the film's political parallels evoke everything from classic propaganda to recent real-world demagogues. Wicked: For Good doesn't shy away from showing that image is power, and those who control the story control the world.

And yet, despite all its political insight, what sticks in the mind most is the film's unshakeable belief in friendship as a fundamental truth. The chemistry between Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, glimpsed in brief moments in the first film, blossoms fully here, particularly in small, wordless moments: Glinda smoothing her skirt as she approaches Elphaba; Elphaba softening every time she hears Glinda say her real name; the two women hesitating on the threshold of reconciliation. When the title duet “For Good” finally arrives, Jon M. Chu wisely clears the screen of all spectacle. No swirling CGI tornado, no army of soldiers, no imposing set. Just two women, a wall between them, singing to each other with a tenderness that makes the room suddenly, incredibly quiet. It's a rare moment when a film of this scale allows genuine intimacy to trump grandeur — and it's this choice that elevates the finale from musical number to emotional climax.

Wicked: For Good accomplishes something surprisingly difficult: it deepens the mythology without stifling it, enriches the characters without betraying them, and reframes a century-old story in a way that feels genuinely urgent. The plot, heavy with twists and turns, doesn't always unfold smoothly; the pacing is sometimes hesitant at first, and a few sequences remain overly busy. But its heart, fueled by Cynthia Erivo's thunderous conviction and Ariana Grande's surprisingly poignant evolution, beats so strongly that it overshadows the missteps. This second chapter understands its role not only as a sequel, but also as the emotional foundation for everything that came before and everything Oz will become. And when the final notes of “For Good” ring out, you feel an impact that transcends nostalgia: a reminder that friendship, once forged, transforms us forever, sometimes painfully, always deeply, and, as the film emphasizes, forever.

Wicked: For Good
Directed by Jon M. Chu
Written by Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox
Based on Wicked by Stephen Schwartz, Winnie Holzman and Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Produced by Marc Platt, David Stone
Starring Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum
Cinematography: Alice Brooks
Edited by Myron Kerstein
Music by John Powell, Stephen Schwartz
Production companies: Universal Pictures, Marc Platt Productions
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release dates: November 4, 2025 (Suhai Music Hall), November 19, 2025 (France), November 21, 2025 (United States)
Running time: 137 minutes

Seen on November 19, 2025 at Gaumont Disney Village, IMAX theater, room 11 seat E18

Mulder's Mark: