More Than Just "Wicked": The Sequel Leaves Audiences Changed "For Good"

That line lands like a spell in Wicked for Good, director Jon M. Chu’s sweeping follow-up to last year’s surprise phenomenon Wicked. Arriving in theaters almost exactly 12 months later, the sequel is expected to conjure a hefty $130 million opening — but the real question is whether this second chapter, long considered the “weaker” half of the Broadway musical, can live up to the soaring expectations set before it.

Happily, Wicked for Good doesn’t just clear that bar — in many ways, it exceeds it.

Set several months after the events of the first film, the emerald-skinned Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is now fully branded as the Wicked Witch of the West. Hunted, feared, and forced into the shadows, she remains determined to liberate Oz’s persecuted animal citizens and expose the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) for the fraud he is.

Meanwhile, Glinda (Ariana Grande) tours the land as the “Good Witch,” a smiling symbol of state-sponsored propaganda crafted by the ruthless Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). But behind the wand and the glittering facade, Glinda is struggling — with her role, with the lies she’s asked to tell, and with her increasingly strained relationship with Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), newly appointed to the Wizard’s elite unit of Witch Hunters, the Gale Force.

Their fractured friendship collides with destiny when a mysterious girl from Kansas crash-lands in Munchkinland, triggering a chain of events that will ripple across Oz — for good.

Despite being filmed back-to-back with Wicked (2024), For Good feels like it was crafted with the hindsight and care of a film produced years later. Chu’s direction, which could occasionally wobble between dazzling and overstuffed in the first installment, is far more assured this time. He directs — forgive the pun — the “Shiz” out of this movie.

Cinematographer Alice Brooks, production designer Nathan Crowley, and Oscar-winning costume designer Paul Tazewell work in breathtaking harmony. Oz doesn’t simply look magical; it looks lived in, as though every frame is filled with secrets worth catching on a repeat viewing.

I attended the Amazon Prime early screening in Wichita earlier this week, and there was not a dry eye in the IMAX auditorium. And I mean not one.

Where Wicked was a more traditional, Broadway-to-screen spectacle with hit after hit, Wicked for Good is its moodier, more introspective sibling. Its songs may not be instant karaoke staples, but they pack a heavier emotional wallop.

Erivo astonishes once again — her rendition of “No Good Deed” is a volcanic showstopper on the same level as her “Defying Gravity.” Yet this film belongs, unmistakably, to Ariana Grande.

Grande’s Glinda emerges as the emotional core in a way that surprised even this longtime Wicked fan. Her performance is funny, fragile, conflicted, and — dare I say — likely Oscar-bound. Lightning strike me if she doesn’t at least get nominated.

In response to the first film’s disqualification from Best Original Song contention, Universal wisely enlisted composer Stephen Schwartz to craft two new numbers: Elphaba’s yearning “No Place Like Home” and Glinda’s devastating self-reckoning ballad “Girl in the Bubble.”

Erivo shines in hers, but Grande’s new solo is the one that brought the house down. It reframes Glinda entirely — a girl trapped by perfection, breaking open for the first time.

Another standout: “As Long As You’re Mine,” where Bailey and Erivo deliver a passionate, swoon-worthy duet that cements Fiyero and Elphaba as one of musical cinema’s great romantic pairings.

Some early critics have grumbled that For Good feels “plodding.” I’d argue it feels intentional. Wicked for Good isn’t trying to prove itself — audiences showing up opening weekend are already invested. The film trusts viewers to sink into its winding narrative and savor this darker, more complex chapter.

Chu deepens the film’s themes, exploring propaganda, the silencing of marginalized communities, and the reclamation of identity. Elphaba’s painful journey — from aspiring collaborator to feared revolutionary — becomes a meditation on how losing a dream can open the door to finding one’s true purpose.

Yet, amid all this, the heart of the film remains what it has always been: a friendship forged under unlikely circumstances, tested under impossible ones, and cherished beyond the limits of perception.

When the title song “For Good” arrives, the film shifts into something quiet, raw, and astonishingly intimate. Chu steps back. The camera rests. And Erivo and Grande deliver a scene so emotionally rich that my theater dissolved into sobs. Myself included.

It’s a moment that feels earned. Honest. Beautiful.

This is a love letter: to Elphaba, to Glinda, to Oz, and above all, to the fans who have loved them for decades.

And when you leave the theater, you might just find yourself changed… for good.