The first trailer for Wicked’s much-anticipated sequel has been released, giving fans a glimpse into an Oz at war, and introducing classic Wizard of Oz characters Dorothy, the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow.
Wicked: For Good will see Cynthia Erivo return as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Ariana Grande as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Also reprising their roles are Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum as The Wizard, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, and Marissa Bode as Nessarose.
Elphaba, who left Shiz Academy at the end of the first film, will return in For Good, but this time on the opposite side of her friend Glinda after being declared an enemy of the state.
Director Jon M Chu confirmed that both Grande and Erivo will have new, original songs in the sequel, along with fan favourites “For Good” and “No Good Deed”.
He assured fans who might not be as familiar with the second act’s score that “there are some bangers.”
“I think it’s been reported we have two new songs,” Chu added, teasing: “They’re great additions to this movie. They were necessary in this movie to help tell the story.”
Fan reactions to the trailer have been positive, with most showing excitement at the brief snippets of “For Good” featured in the trailer.
“’No Good Deed’ and ‘For Good’ Cynthia and Ariana version oh my god guys I’m actually crying. This is this is exactly how I would imagine the musical would be in movie form, they are cooking so hard. ‘For Good’ has always been my top favourite songs and I am so so so crying at the theatre,” one fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“ I’m sat. The theatre employees are scared to ask me to leave,” one fan commented on the YouTube trailer.
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Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz returned to pen the new songs after writing the music and lyrics for the stage production, which opened on Broadway in 2003.
The first footage from the film was presented at the annual conference for theatre owners and distributors in Las Vegas in April, with early reactions calling it “dazzling” and “intriguing”.
The first Wicked film, based on the first act of the hit Broadway musical, was a box office success but divided critics.
“Wicked looks like every other film now. That’s its problem. It may be the screen adaptation of the stage musical – itself based on a 1995 novel – but, within moments, it also tethers itself directly to the classic 1939 musical The Wizard of Oz,” The Independent’s Clarrise Loughrey wrote in a three-star review.
“And while that film’s Emerald City and Land of Oz have been cemented in the public imagination as brilliant-hued dream worlds, and the most famous demonstration of the Technicolor process, Wicked is shot and lit like we’re being sold an Airbnb in Mykonos.”
Wicked: For Good is set to release in theatres on 21 November 2025.
