Is another Wicked movie on the way? That’s the question on the minds of fans of the stage musical-turned-box office smash. It also seems to be on the minds of some of the film’s creative team.
In the two weeks since the Jon M. Chu-directed sequel film was released, it’s raked in $269.4 million at the domestic box office. Globally, Wicked: For Good is approaching the $400 million mark. It opened to a record-breaking $147 million in North America, making it the biggest opening for a Broadway musical adaption by breaking the record Wicked previously held.
There’s been chatter of whether or not Wicked will return to screen in some form, as Wicked: For Good wrapped up the plot of the stage musical on which the two-part film adaptation was based (the first film featured the show’s first act, and the second film featured the second act). “Because of Wicked’s success but also the fanship, we have almost a responsibility to figure out how we can continue in this universe,” Universal’s chief marketing officer, Michael Moses, told Vulture in a recent interview. “Have we figured it out yet? No. But there are things underway.”
Academy Award-winning composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who created the show for Broadway along with collaborator Winnie Holzman, indicated to The Ankler that he and Holzman aren’t quite done with the land of Oz. “What I will tell you without giving away too much is that Winnie Holzman and I are doing some work right now on ideas that aren’t a sequel to Wicked,” he told the newsletter. “I think the Glinda and Elphaba story feels complete — but there are other aspects that could be explored.”
Schwartz noted that the source material for Wicked the film is based off Gregory Maguire’s novel, which is one of several set in the universe. But he stressed that it wouldn’t be a sequel. He told the newsletter if someone could have valid justification for a continuation beyond making money, he’d “of course” consider that but that “no one has yet presented” anything of that sort yet.
The films are based on the 2003 musical of the same name, which was originally based on the best-selling novel by Maguire. Wicked tells the untold story of the witches of Oz. Holzman, the stage production’s book writer, wrote the screenplay for Chu’s movies with Dana Fox. 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 surprise cameos during the “One Short Day” sequence in the first film).
Chu and the team shot both movies together “over 160 days and got stopped 10 days before finishing [because of the strike] our ‘Defying Gravity’ and flying days,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. The team finished up the 10 days of production at the beginning of 2024. As the movies were shot together, the cast remains the same for both films.
“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, with the added context that the Wizard and her mentor, Madame Morrible, played in the film by Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh, respectively, have branded her “wicked” after she refused to help their plot to strip rights away from the animals in Oz.
Elphaba and Glinda, who spent the first act and film becoming friends against all odds, go their separate ways in the second film as Elphaba chooses to rebel against the Wizard and Glinda stays behind. This served as the natural separation point between Wicked and Wicked: For Good, which picked back up with Elphaba fully apart from Glinda, who has become the good witch that fans know from the original Wizard of Oz.
Wicked: For Good featured two new songs not sung in the Broadway musical: Erivo’s “No Place Like Home” and Grande’s “The Girl in the Bubble.”
