*there will be spoilers about what happens in this movie*
From book, to musical, to movie, Wicked is beloved by many, including myself. Wicked: For Good was released to theaters on November 21, 2025. It is the second movie that is based on the book and musical that follow Elphaba, who has been outcasted as The Wicked Witch of the West, living in hiding, and her friend Glinda who lives in the Emerald City where she struggles with popularity and helping Elphaba.
“I thought it was really good. It was definitely more sad than the first one, but I really liked it,” Lucy Minger ‘27 said.
In 2024, the movie Wicked was released to theatres. Based on the book and popular Broadway musical which is a spin off of The Wizard of Oz. It follows Elphaba as she is sent to a school called Shiz to watch over her sister, Nessarose. While there, Elphaba forms an unlikely friendship with Glinda, a girl who strives for perfection and popularity, and Fiyero, a troublemaking prince. Elphaba tries to hide her magic, but a professor, Madame Morrible, notices her talent and gives her lessons. This professor then gives Elphaba the opportunity to visit the capital city of Oz called the Emerald City to meet the wizard. Elphaba and Glinda travel to meet the wizard, where they realize that he is a fraud. At the end of the movie he tries to defame Elphaba, causing tension between the two girls and leading to Elphaba needing to escape. The movie ends at this cliff hanger with the final song “Defying Gravity.”
“I liked the original. I thought they did a really good job. That one was literally word for word the same. It was really similar. Obviously it was longer because there were more action shots and landscapes and it was beautiful in that way to be able to see it in that perspective, but I was really impressed how closely it resembled it,” Delia Kilborn ‘28 said.
When Wicked: For Good was released to theaters, it received mixed feedback. Some people love the continuation of the story, while others wish that the movie had instead been a longer single movie because it seems slow. Also, some believe that the songs in Wicked: For Good are not as amazing as the first movie. I personally have loved Wicked ever since I went to see it on Broadway in 2024 and was elated when the movies were announced and released.
“I feel like it’s really similar. There’s definitely some aspects that are different because I guess the outfits that they wear are maybe a little different because of the stage when there’s certain parts of the wicked set on Broadway that are kind of iconic. There’s a dragon that is above the stage. But I felt like I was really impressed by how similar it was. And I was impressed how they were able to make the music so similar to the style of the music of the musical,” Kilborn said.
The Wicked: For Good movie begins a year after Wicked ends with showing the castle where The Wicked Witch supposedly dies, with a voice-over of Glinda narrating what happened to Elphaba. Then, the movie turns to focus on what has occurred in Elphaba’s life in the past year. She has been forced into hiding in the woods, and she has flown around Oz to fight for animal rights. She meets some animals that she had become friends with trying to escape from Oz to a better life. Meanwhile, in the Emerald City, Glinda is balancing both maintaining her perfect image, being a celebrity and still supporting Elphaba. Fiyero has been appointed Captain of the Royal Guard, which he is using this position to find Elphaba and try to protect her. One day, when Glinda, the royal guard and Madame Morrible are visiting an Ozian town decked with posters demonizing The Wicked Witch, Glinda announces her engagement to Fiyero, which was a surprise to him because he hadn’t proposed and the wedding will happen soon.
“I was really impressed with all of the CGI and [visuals]. It just looked so good and I thought it looked exactly what I would expect it to look like. So I was happy about that,” Kilborn said.
When Glinda is preparing for her wedding, Elphaba comes to visit her. This is a very emotional scene because they haven’t seen each other in a while, and Glinda tries to convince Elphaba to turn herself in. Elphaba realizes that Glinda is right and goes to see the Wizard, but upon realizing that the animals, including her favorite teacher Dr. Dillamond, are in cages, she sets them free. This action causes a disruption to the wedding of Glinda and Elphaba. Fiyero realizes that he loves and wants to be with Elphaba instead, and they flee to the woods. The wedding scene does not happen in the musical, so for me, who’s seen the musical, this was a bit of a surprise. However, I thought it was well executed, and seeing Glinda’s response was heartbreaking.
“I really like how Ariana portrays Glinda, because the girl who originally played Glinda, played her in a completely different way. She played her like she didn’t know what she was doing. She was just naive. But in the movie, Ariana, the way she plays her, she knew all along what was happening. So I thought that was kind of interesting,” Kilborn said.
Next, Fiyero and Elphaba live together, and because Glinda is upset about Fiyero, she tells Madame Morrible a way to try to capture Elphaba, which is to focus on her sister, Nessarose. Madame Morrible takes this idea to create a storm. In the storm, a house falls on Nessarose and she dies. This is a parallel to The Wizard of Oz, because Nessarose is The Wicked Witch of the East and Dorothy finds her and takes her slippers.
“One of the things that surprised me most about the movie was that Madame Morrible ended up being one of the main villains. I wasn’t expecting her to be the [true] Wicked Witch,” Minger said.
Afterwards, when Elphaba finds out, she is furious. She flees to Fiyero’s empty castle, and holds Dorothy and Toto captive because Dorothy stole Nessarose’s shoes. One interesting thing that both the musical and the movie do is they don’t show the face of Dorothy to not distract the storyline. Meanwhile, Fiyero is found by the royal guards and tortured. Elphaba casts a spell to protect him, turning him into a scarecrow. Eventually, the citizens form a mob and march to Elphaba’s castle, and Fiyero makes his way there as well. Elphaba lets Dorothy go, and Fiyero helps Elphaba pour water on herself and “melt,” faking her death. They climb down the trapdoor in the castle and hide until people are convinced that they are dead.
“I really liked the plot twist at the end, how Fiyero and Elphaba were both actually alive and faked their deaths,” Minger said.
At the end of the movie, Elphaba and Glinda leave Oz for a better life, Glinda imprisons Madame Morrible and goes to the castle Elphaba inhabited, to find the Grimmere book open. This is different from the musical, because in the musical version Glinda doesn’t know that Elphaba is still alive, however in the film, it is left open for Glinda to believe that she is still living, however Glinda doesn’t know where Elphaba is. The iconic song “For Good” is sung at the end in a bittersweet, exceptional way.
“I would [recommend Wicked: For Good]. I thought it was really emotional and it was really good,” Minger said.
