Wicked: For Good

2025

Let’s get right down to it: are there river otters in Wicked: For Good? Yes! (Also, a family of fennec foxes with tiny backpacks.)

Now, the minor stuff.

I see now why everyone has been worried about this sequel living up to the first film due to the play having a “weaker second act.” I am not sure if I would use the word “weaker,” but this half of the story is a very different type of movie than the first one. Where Act One is a light comedic musical that deals with Galinda and Elphaba meeting at school, Act Two (here known as For Good) takes place at a later date and is significantly darker and more “plotty.” (Guess what autocorrect turned that word into initially?)

My main objective with the Wicked movies was to understand the plot that somehow linked together the songs on my Broadway Cast Album. Act One has a more straightforward story, so this second film is where most of those unknown plot points take place (and they are quite clever). That does tend to bog the film down a bit, though. We could enjoy watching the central relationship evolve in Act One, but now we have serious plot stuff to fly through. Tonally, though, it is just a completely different beast.

Act One is something of a bildungsroman about the inevitable disillusionment of youthful idealism and how one reacts to it. Act Two is about the disillusionment of adulthood, when you attain your goals and find them oddly empty. This is perfectly summed up in one of this half’s lyrical highlights, from Glinda’s portion of the song “Thank Goodness”:

"I couldn't be happier.
Simply couldn't be happier.
Well, not 'simply.'
Because getting your dreams,
It's strange, but it seems
A little, well, complicated.
There's a kind of a sort of cost.
There's a couple of things get lost.
There are bridges you crossed you didn't know you'd crossed until you'd crossed."

So, the now epithetted Glinda the Good and Wicked Witch of the West each have the thing they deeply desire. Elphaba is a tragically misunderstood crusader for social change, while Glinda is an adored public figure. (Truly, these core desires have been there from the very beginning of the story. Elphaba has always enjoyed the way she puts people off balance.) Neither is happy, even though “happy is what happens when all your dreams come true.” The point of it all is that “good” and “wicked” are false descriptors for any person: we are all a frightful mix of the two, and if we pin our dreams on being one thing only, we will constantly chafe under its yoke. Indeed, no character makes it through For Good without doing some awful things for some good reasons.

After the first film surprised me by making me believe these two thirtysomething actresses were schoolgirls, I was especially focused on how the second film would age those characters up just as believably. Again, I needn’t have worried. Both women bear the weight and grandeur of age, and their story arcs are in the exact trajectory of their early portrayals. The same is true for every character (although Nessarose still looks a lot younger than her peers).

Wicked is known for its curtain songs: “Defying Gravity” at the end of Act One and “For Good” at the end of Act Two. They are very different songs but equally powerful and popular. However, because of the darker tone, there aren’t really “fun” songs like “Popular” and “What Is This Feeling?” in the second half. (Still, “No Good Deed” is a personal favorite, and I would have liked a longer version of it in the film.) Because pretty much every musical is said to have a weaker score in Act Two, Stephen Schwartz gives us two new numbers here: “There’s No Place Like Home” (forgettable but serviceable) and “The Girl in the Bubble” (a great gift to Ariana Grande).

Wicked: For Good ups the whimsy of its design while delivering some true knockout dresses for Glinda. Grande actually gets the best of this film because, having grown through her friendship with Elphaba, Glinda is no longer a shallow Barbie doll. While Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba) still gets great material, it is similar to what she did in the first film. Grande, however, gets to display true dramatic acting chops (to everyone’s surprise?). In fact, she is currently in the top spot in the Supporting Actress Oscar odds. And I actually get it. (Just as she might actually get it come awards night.) Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum also get to play some great moments. (Just watch her tai-chi that twister together!) Even Boq gets material to sink his teeth into. Fiyero, however, does much less this time around and is less interesting doing it. (Also, given the film’s family vibe, it was a little creepy to have pre- and post-coital scenes—but I was thankful for the small amount of skin they bared.)

So, while For Good may not necessarily be “weaker” than Wicked, it is a lot less fun. It even proves to be the opposite of escapist, drawing all of our thoughts to the current power dynamics of personality. Given the expectations built up by Act One, this may prove to be a problem for audiences wanting more of the same. Thankfully for them, there are the otters.