- Date of Release: 21 November 2025
- Genre: Fantasy, Musical, Romance
- Language: English
- Watch On: Theatres Only
Wicked: For Good
Introduction
One of the highlights of Wicked (2024), last year’s global smash-hit was the political subtext that was sandwiched between the fluff that was on offer. The parallels were clear – the animals losing their ability to speak was directly a mirror to the society shackled in the presence of authorities and capitalists that are ruling the world. The latter in Oz was a Wizard, tactfully creating a niche to sell lies to its people – much like spewing hatred for The Wicked Witch of the West. Its pondering theme seemed far too close for comfort while cutting through the fluff and the musical that it veiled to be. But come the new English film and a followup to Wicked titled ‘Wicked: For Good’, you do see a drop in the quality of the franchise that increasingly has seemed to lean towards fluff. The political subtext is on the sidelines – just like a superstar player who is forced to sit on the benches in a game of soccer, while the less deserving but crowd pleasing substitutes take center-stage. And that remained such a shame for a followup that seemed promising at the start.
Story & Screenplay
Written by Dana Fox and Winnie Holzman, Wicked For Good picks up from the same point where Wicked had ended – Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) lives in an exiled forest in Oz while being the victim of a facade created around her name, wherein the general public is threatened by her existence and spewing hatred towards her. On the other hand, Glinda (Ariana Grande) lives in a bubble (literally speaking), while enjoying the perks of the palace in the Emerald City. The definition of Wicked that marked its relevance in the first part, remains slightly binary here. Elphaba wishes to prove her innocence even while witnessing a string of animals leave for an unfamiliar territory, away from the clutches of a authoritarian who has laid out the Yellow Brick Road in Oz, and someone who has been controlling most voices in his kingdom (read: The Wizard Of Oz). And yet, the writing inclines towards Glinda who is facing a turmoil of her own – of being worthy of the throne, a conflict that cutaways into her past wherein she fakes a magic trick at her birthday party.
Glinda has always believed in magic, but the ability lies elsewhere, even as she is on the verge of being engaged to a (reluctant) charmer Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who may in turn be holding onto some surprises of his own. In all of it, I missed the turmoil of Elphaba – a victim of the politics of her own land, that saw her being distanced from her rights. There is a hint of racism in play somewhere, but the writing never quite brings it to the forefront. In that sense, the writing plays it really safe here, being a much sanitized version of the first film that felt a lot braver with what it wished to highlight. Yes, the central theme of friendship between Elphaba and Glinda was very much a part of that narrative, but the substance lay in its subtext.
The game of perceptions is bartered for the equation shared by Glinda and Elphaba. Both Glinda and Elphaba have been victims of their own consequences – Glinda choosing good no matter what, and Elphaba choosing complexity to fight against oppression. It is worth noting on how their respective backgrounds define their choices, but the bond that they share still tends towards some close proximity. Glinda remains the naive one, offering an olive branch of peace to reconcile the tensions between Elphaba and The Wizard (Jeff Goldblum). And yet, the bubble depicted is accurate for Glinda’s life, who is increasingly unaware of the Wizard’s motives, something that further distances herself from Elphaba. It is clear that Glinda thinks and acts in binaries like a computer program, but the issue remains on how the writing does too.
The biggest letdown for me remained the characterization here. While there are easter eggs in store on how popular characters were transformed into important characters from The Wizard Of Oz (The Tin Man, The Straw Man…to name a few), the existing characters have so little meat to play with this time. The likes of Nessa (Marissa Bode) is reduced to a character without a strong existence while abruptly cutting her off, Boq (Ethan Slater) doesn’t get a chance to blossom either with respect to his conflict and his feelings for Glinda, Fiyero increasingly tapers off after revealing his true motives, and the Wizard and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeow) are reduced to the background with little to no emphasis on the evil games being implicated. Each of these characters had a strong identity in the first film but none of them are written well here.
Some of the emotions do land here with an example being the final goodbye between Elphaba and Glinda, but these moments remain few and far between. They are sandwiched between subplots that are literally skeketal versions of themselves, holding little to no relevance and almost zero impact – be it Dorothy being summoned by the Wizard to locate the Wicked Witch of the West, or the latter capturing Dorothy just for a pair of shoes. And while the messaging at the end was an important one of spreading goodness over hatred, the fluff in the monologue and the atmospherics felt too curated, and honestly distracting too. And that kind of summed up the entire screenplay here that boasted of all fluff but no magic.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are used as fillers here, almost allowing the songs to take over (yes, this is a musical). But this time around and unlike the first Wicked, even the songs are forgettable and don’t quite stick after the film has ended. It remained a significant downgrade in the music department, even though the BGM is able to salvage some moments by allowing some emotions to land. The cinematography is phenomenal with colours bursting through frames, and the large grandeur that epitomizes the scale of the drama. But in that sense, the frames are guilty of going overboard with the fluff, which wasn’t ideal in my opinion. The costumes are grand as well while being aesthetically pleasing to witness. The editing pattern is satisfactory but I still couldn’t fathom the creative decision of riding past some of the more important events in the screenplay. In that regard, it kind of felt a little too abrupt for my liking.
Director Jon M Chu misses the mark this time around while choosing to harbour a narrative that unfolds in binaries without a subtext, which remained a key driving force in the first part. It is more on how Call Me Bae would have ended up being without a subtext in play. Jon employs a safe narrative without ruffling too many feathers, while just focusing on the dynamic between his two protagonists. But even that felt superficial in a drama that failed on the account of charscterization. The direction remains too bland here while allowing fluff to overpower the written material.
Performances
The performances are decent by the members of the cast but most of them are hard done by, due to some rather poor characterization. Taking someone like Colman Domingo for the voice of the Cowardly Lion, and them reducing him to a tertiary character is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the drama here. Marissa Bode as Nessa and Ethan Slater as Boq have hardly anything to do here, barring a couple of scenes wherein they remain sincere. Likewise, Michelle Yeow as Madame Morrible and Jeff Goldblum as The Wizard Of Oz are such sketchy characters who are touted as the antagonists here, that the impact just isn’t there. Both of them aren’t threatening enough, and both literally sleepwalk through their roles. Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero gets increasingly irrelevant in the drama, and although he is charming, his performance doesn’t fully bloom here. Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba does look disinterested while having to play with a skewed character arc that doesn’t really land at the end. Ariana Grande as Glinda is the only one in her elements, in a character dipped in saccharine, wherein she does a good job here. Some emotions do land due to her performance, wherein she essays a character with perhaps the strongest arc in the film.
Conclusion
Wicked: For Good is a drama boasting of all fluff but no magic while being a significant downgrade from the first film. And this is coming from a person who doesn’t mind his share of musicals! Available in a theatre near you.