The second film in Jon M. Chu’s two-part screen adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical will hit theaters Nov. 21, 2025, a year after Wicked was released.
Wicked: Part Two sees the witches of Oz, Ariana Grande‘s Galinda — Glinda the Good Witch — and Cynthia Erivo‘s Elphaba — the Wicked Witch of the West — continuing the story of the first film.
Wicked, which arrived in theaters Nov. 22, had the highest opening for a musical adaptation with $114 million at the domestic box office.
The films are based on the 2003 musical of the same name, which was originally based on the best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire.
Winnie Holzman, the stage production’s book writer, wrote the screenplay for Chu’s movie with Dana Fox. Academy Award-winning composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz adapted the musical for the screen. Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth originated the roles of Elphaba and Glinda on Broadway (and they appeared in cameos during the “One Short Day” sequence).
Wicked ended with Erivo’s awe-inspiring performance of the stage show’s most well-known 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 break Act 1 and Act 2 into separate films.
“We knew we didn’t want to pull the movie away from the show so far that it wasn’t the show that I loved,” he said. “We started 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 just 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 just became very apparent that we had to make a choice. We went back and forth, are we making a three-and-a-half-hour movie that cuts off all these things? Are we doing one at a time? And if we’re doing one at a time, then we have to make sure that that movie is emotionally fulfilling so it doesn’t feel like we’re stopping in the middle of a story. … We all agreed that we were splitting it.”
The team finished up the 10 days of production at the beginning of this year. As the movies were shot together, the cast remains the same for both films.
Wicked‘s second act takes a darker turn from the bright poppy moments in the first act. “Defying Gravity,” in both the stage musical and film, serves as the moment that Elphaba “transforms” into the Wicked Witch of the West that Wizard of Oz fans know.
The added context is that the Wizard and her mentor, Madame Morrible, played in film by Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh, have branded her “wicked” after she refused to help their plot to strip rights from the animals in Oz.
Elphaba and Glinda, who spent the first act and film becoming friends against all odds, go their separate ways as Elphaba chooses to rebel against the Wizard and Glinda stays behind.
Act 2 takes place parallel to the events of the original Wizard of Oz. It begins with Glinda, now dubbed Glinda the Good, and Fiyero, portrayed by Jonathan Bailey, now captain of the wizard’s guard, speaking with the public of Oz as officials for the Wizard.
Morrible, who tells a completely untrue account of the show’s first act finale, announces that Fiyero and Glinda are engaged to calm a crowd worried about the Wicked Witch. Fiyero still cares for Elphaba and leaves due to the crowd’s horrible comments.
The Wizard once again offers Elphaba a chance to join his cause, but she rejects him and Fiyero helps her escape from the Wizard, leaving Glinda behind. The pair eventually confess their love for one another. Morrible and the Wizard devise a plan to put Nessarose in danger to get Elphaba’s attention. This kicks off Morrible causing the tornado in the Wizard of Oz that brings Dorothy to Oz and kills Nessarose, a.k.a. the Wicked Witch of the East.
