Last year’s global cinematic cultural sensation, which became the most successful Broadway film adaptation of all time, now reaches its epic, electrifying, emotional conclusion in Wicked: For Good.
In 2024, Wicked not only shattered box office records, becoming the most successful Broadway musical film adaptation of all time, but also reaffirmed why this story has forged such a deep connection with audiences around the world for more than two decades. Now, in Wicked: For Good, the emotional power of that story reaches its zenith.
“Wicked has always tapped into something universal,” producer Marc Platt says. “It is filled with spectacle, music and magic, but underneath it is a story about truth, perception, and the choices we make between good and evil. That is what gives it its power. It reflects the world we live in, how easily people can be swayed by illusion, how quickly we are to believe what we want to believe. And yet at its core, it is about compassion, courage and friendship, the things that make us want to do good in the world. What makes For Good so special is that those themes have only become more relevant. The story continues to ask questions about what’s true, what is right and what kind of world we want to live in. It is a reminder that even in a place as fantastical as Oz, the most powerful kind of magic is the human capacity for empathy and understanding.”
Wicked: For Good is also about courage, in all its forms. Elphaba is willing to sacrifice her own dreams and hopes to fight against an oppression of the Animals that her spirit cannot ignore. But it is Glinda’s courage in Wicked: For Good that, when joined with Elphaba’s, has the power to truly change their world for the better.
“The narrative of Wicked hinges on a decision by one character, Elphaba, to stand up, alone, in opposition to cruelty toward others,” director Jon M. Chu says. “Elphaba is not unlike Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, who stands up for what’s right, regardless of the personal costs. We love these moral heroes because we all want to believe that if we were faced with the same choices, we would be Atticus or Elphaba, too. But most of us, if we are honest with ourselves, are more like Glinda. We are often a little scared. We calculate the risk of speaking out. We want to do the right thing, but we are afraid to risk what we have. Luckily, heroism has power and value no matter when we summon it. And in Wicked: For Good, Glinda’s decision to pop her own bubble and join the fight, when she knows full well the cost of that decision, is an act of courage as meaningful as Elphaba’s.”
This deep character exploration was aided by the filmmakers’ decision to split the Wicked narrative into two films. This allowed them to both expand the narrative and enrich the relationships between the characters. “There is the same wit, charm, and incredible music, but this chapter carries deeper emotion,” Platt says. “This film tells the story of how Elphaba and Glinda are torn apart by their circumstances and find their way back to each other. The people of Oz will never know that they are best friends, but the film’s audience will understand that their friendship remains unbreakable.”
In fact, says Chu, Wicked: For Good is really what the entire emotional arc of the first film was building toward. “It was clear when we separated the two movies that Wicked: For Good needed some additional elements to fully tell the story of these two women and their struggle to come back together,” Chu says. “Because now, the world is wedged between their friendship and that is a much harder mechanism to fight through than just cultural or personality differences. Now there is literal structure and government between them. Deep down, we knew that Wicked: For Good was always going to be the bigger story. The kids we fell in love with in the first film now have to grow up, and they have to make choices that will last a lifetime. This isn’t school anymore.”
For the stage musical’s composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz and book writer Winnie Holzman, the chance to expand the Wicked story was a thrilling opportunity years in the making. “For all the years that the show had been running, Winnie and I had been talking about what we would do if the story ever became a movie,” Stephen Schwartz says. “When it was decided to make Wicked as two movies, we had more time to really explore the story and put in some incidents and some character development that we just did not have time for in the show. That was exciting.”
All those ideas that they had discussed over the years suddenly could step into the light. “It was this incredible opportunity to be able to revisit something that we had worked on very lovingly and that had reached audiences and really touched them,” says screenwriter Winnie Holzman. “These movies gave us exciting freedom and the ability to add things we had always dreamed of adding and some things we had never thought of adding that really deepened the story. We spent a lot of time figuring out what was going to make the second movie stand on its own and not feel just like the conclusion of the earlier story.”
It is almost unheard of for anyone to write two films at the same time because most second films are greenlighted only after the first film is released. This rare experience allowed Holzman and her fellow screenwriter, Dana Fox, to intentionally interweave the two stories in emotive, evocative ways. “We could pull thematic ideas through the two films and create images that we knew we wanted to flash back to in the second film,” Dana Fox says. “We wanted to have elements that made you feel emotionally connected to the first movie while watching the second movie. It was extraordinary to be allowed to plan all of that in advance.”
As part of that expansion of the narrative for Wicked: For Good, Stephen Schwartz created two new original songs for the film: “No Place Like Home” for Elphaba and “The Girl in the Bubble” for Glinda. “In this film, Glinda reaches a point of crisis where she just cannot continue to live the way she has been,” Schwartz says. “She has been insulated from what is really going on, cutting off her own morality and sense of decency in order to have the trappings of what she thinks she wants. Finally, there is a moment where she must confront this, and it felt essential that we take the time to have a song in which to do that.”
Elphaba’s song, by contrast, derives from a singular, and universal, emotion. “It was important to show how much Elphaba loves Oz,” Schwartz says. “Although it has not been very good to her, it is her home, and all of her heart and soul wants to stay there, fight for it and make it a better place. When you are born somewhere, that place becomes part of you, and you cannot really explain why. That is a universal feeling, and I tried to capture that in this song.”
Wicked and Wicked: For Good were shot simultaneously, which allowed the filmmakers to maximize the efficiency of the films’ spectacular built sets. For example, all the scenes in The Wizard’s throne room in both films were filmed in the same time frame, as were all the scenes set in Munchkinland, etc. This required all the departments to prepare the production design, cinematography, costumes, hair and makeup, music, stunts and more for both films at the same time. It also required the actors to play younger and more mature versions of their characters often within the same week. The mind-blowing amount of coordinated work demanded extraordinary organization, communication and creativity.
“When you create a world people want to be transported to, you have to build one that feels magical and full of possibility,” Platt says. “Oz is whimsical and utopic. It has great beauty with its own colors, its own laws, and its own humanity. That is what makes it such a powerful fairytale world. But what makes it resonate is that beneath all the fantasy and wonder, it reflects our own world, both the one we live in and the one we wish we lived in. This story works because it invites us into a place of delight, charm and make-believe, yet its people and their struggles still feel real. We are transported somewhere extraordinary, but we recognize ourselves in it, and that is what moves us.”
For Chu, his aspiration for Wicked: For Good is that it transports audiences to a place that film has never taken them before, not just geographically, but emotionally. “For audiences, and for ourselves, we wanted this to feel like the epic conclusion of a friendship that was emotionally authentic, and that the heartbreak was balanced by hope,” Chu says. “We wanted the stakes to be higher, the temperature to be up, the scope to be bigger, the emotions to be deeper. Everything about this story converges here, now. On the other side of pain and betrayal and loss, there is also forgiveness, grace and love.”
With Wicked: For Good, composer John Powell once again joins forces with composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz to expand the world of Oz through music that is both deeply rooted in stage-musical traditions and entirely cinematic. If the first film charted the blossoming of Elphaba and Glinda’s friendship, For Good confronts that friendship’s collapse and eventual reconciliation, and the score evolves to meet the story’s larger emotional and dramatic scale.
From the outset, Powell approached For Good as both continuation and reinvention. As the narrative sharpened into themes of fracture, truth and reconciliation, Powell recognized that the score required new musical architecture to carry its weight. His work on the first film had given him a deep command of Schwartz’s musical language, but rather than simply restating it, he used that foundation to transform and expand the material in ways that reflected the story’s heightened stakes. Alongside these reinventions, he composed a series of entirely new themes written specifically for this chapter, building a score that honors the legacy of Wicked while standing on its own.
The final chapter of the untold story of the witches of Oz begins with Elphaba and Glinda estranged and living with the consequences of their choices. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), now demonised as The Wicked Witch of the West, lives in exile, hidden within the Ozian forest while continuing her fight for the freedom of Oz’s silenced Animals and desperately trying to expose the truth she knows about The Wizard (Jeff Goldblum). Glinda (Ariana Grande), meanwhile, has become the glamorous symbol of Goodness for all of Oz, living at the palace in Emerald City and revelling in the perks of fame and popularity. Under the instruction of Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), Glinda is deployed to serve as an effervescent comfort to Oz, reassuring the masses that all is well under The Wizard’s regime. As Glinda’s stardom expands and she prepares to marry Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey). As an angry mob rises against the Wicked Witch, Glinda and Elphaba will need to come together one final time. With their singular friendship now the fulcrum of their futures, they will need to truly see each other, with honesty and empathy, if they are to change themselves and all of Oz, for good.
Jon M. Chu is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter celebrated for his dynamic visual style and commitment to inclusive storytelling. Born on November 2, 1979, in Palo Alto, California, Chu grew up in a culturally rich household—his father, Lawrence Chu, founded the iconic Chef Chu’s restaurant, and his mother, Ruth Chu, encouraged his early creative pursuits by gifting him a video camera. Chu studied at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he won multiple awards including the Princess Grace and Jack Nicholson directing honors. His breakout came with the Step Up dance films, but he truly rose to prominence with Crazy Rich Asians (2018), a landmark romantic comedy featuring a majority Asian cast. He followed this with In the Heights (2021), showcasing his flair for musical storytelling. With Wicked (2024) and Wicked: For Good (2025), Chu brings his signature blend of spectacle and emotional depth to the beloved Broadway musical, earning accolades for his direction and further cementing his role as a visionary in contemporary cinema.
Winnie Holzman is a revered American playwright, screenwriter, and producer whose work spans theater, television, and film. Born in New York City on August 18, 1954, Holzman studied English and creative writing at Princeton University before earning her MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU, where she trained under legends like Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents. She gained early acclaim for her emotionally nuanced television writing, most notably as the creator of My So-Called Life (1994), a cult teen drama praised for its authenticity and depth. Holzman made her Broadway debut with Wicked (2003), writing the book for the Tony Award–winning musical adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s novel. Her work is marked by empathy for misunderstood characters and a gift for reframing familiar stories through a more compassionate lens. Holzman co-wrote the screenplays for both Wicked films alongside Dana Fox, bringing her theatrical insight and emotional intelligence to the screen.
Dana Fox is an American screenwriter and producer known for her sharp wit, romantic comedies, and collaborative spirit. Born on September 18, 1976, in Brighton, New York, Fox studied English and art history at Stanford University before attending USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program. Though she initially intended to become a producer, a screenwriting assignment shifted her path. Her first produced film, The Wedding Date (2005), led to a string of successful projects including What Happens in Vegas (2008), How to Be Single (2016), and Cruella (2021). Fox also created the TV series Ben and Kate and is a founding member of the “Fempire,” a writing collective that champions female voices in Hollywood. Her work often blends humor with emotional resonance, and her collaboration with Winnie Holzman on Wicked and Wicked: For Good showcases her ability to adapt theatrical material for the screen while preserving its heart and complexity.
