Publication Date: 11-22-2025

Wicked: For Good (2025) review

Dir. Jon M. Chu

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★½

When word broke that the adaptation of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s Broadway musical Wicked was to be filmed and released in two parts, reception was mixed. It was a move that seemed very mid-2010s, when studios realized they could split film adaptations of books such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay and make almost $1 billion twice over. It was a brilliant practice. What are die-hard fans of the respective series going to do? Ignore the massively hyped twofer or rob themselves of seeing the concluding part? Their fandom alone will make them justify the second installment; even if, in Mockingjay‘s case, the book was merely 390 pages.

Being a sprawling stage musical, Wicked justifies the yearlong entr’acte and two-film existence better than the aforementioned works. For one, the first part ends with the enormous “Defying Gravity” number, which was made to bring the curtain down. Picking up after that crescendo would’ve surely felt like a muchness, and trying to condense this material into a sub-three hour affair would’ve undoubtedly cheapened the product into something born to be forgotten. Wicked: For Good has the thankless task of committing the second act of the stage musical to film — which is widely regarded as significantly inferior to its predecessor — but still makes an impression by accentuating the depths of the emotional, star-crossed relationship between its powerful co-leads.

Five years after being banished from Oz, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) continues to levy her crusade for animal rights against the Wizard’s (Jeff Goldblum) fascistic reign. All this while Glinda (Ariana Grande-Butera) bathes in the spotlight as the Wizard’s darling despite missing Elphaba, her confidant, and quietly questioning the advice given by Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), the Wizard’s mouthpiece. To keep things pithy, For Good revolves around Glinda and Elphaba coming to grips with their divergent paths. Glinda has everything she’s ever wanted, with the exception of someone who saw her as a person as opposed to a personality. She even has a fiancée in Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who could use a personality of his own as he pines for Elphaba. Meanwhile, Elphaba risks her life as she challenges the Wizard’s authoritarian regime by advocating for the animals of Oz, all while construction of the Yellow Brick Road is taking place.

Wicked: Part I spoiled us with the inclusion of two banger musical numbers in the chipper, Grande-led “Popular” and the aforementioned “Defying Gravity.” This follow-up gives us significantly fewer memorable numbers. The best comes in the form of the Wizard’s “Wonderful,” a song (greatly reworked from its Broadway origins, I’ll add) that has the blunt con-man explaining how the “blarney” he speaks becomes the very thing by which the masses live and die. Even when they’re shown what they’re believing is “sham and hokum,” “facts and logic” won’t matter one iota; they’ll just believe it even more. Oz surely seemed like it was a hellhole before the Wizard came along. It’s a catchy number, elevated by Rube Goldbergian props and Goldblum’s cheeky delivery.

I meant what I said in my review of Wicked: Part I. It’s about time we start putting some respect on Jon M. Chu’s name. He picks up where he left off, with eye-popping production and big-screen spectacle, costumed majestically by the legendary Paul Tazewell.

Wicked: For Good is burdened by a very lethargic second act. The tone and visuals are noticeably darker, but that’s not the problem. The issue comes with screenwriters Holzman and Dana Fox’s desire to linger on scenes for long periods of time. Look, adapting this musical into a two-part movie was justifiable, but the caveat was, post-“Defying Gravity,” the meat on the bone likely could’ve been contained in 90 minutes or less. Being that every big-budget spectacle these days needs to exceed two hours, filler and extended sequences needed to be added, which paradoxically leads to scenes feeling overlong and subsequently undeveloped. Fiyero still feels like an interjected love interest, and while Marissa Bode leaves an impression as Nessarose, Elphaba’s half-sister, her status as a sacrificial lamb doesn’t feel as heartbreaking as it should.

The second act plods along at a turtle’s pace, and the sore-spot is the lack of development we get with the animals Elphaba is hellbent on saving. We get next-to nothing from the goat professor, Dr. Dillamond, who was integral to the pathos of the first part, and the sequence with Elphaba amongst the animals feels like an extension of the recent live-action iteration of The Lion King in terms of artificiality.

The other striking ballad is the titular one, which — after a long, winding, sometimes sleepy movie — remind you how much these characters have touched you. The song, sung by Erivo and Grande, is filled with intimate gazes, affecting interplay, and pathos. After watching Glinda and Elphaba’s relationship evolve, devolve, soar, crash, mend, and fray for more than five hours, the song rewards your commitment with ample instrumental space that permits your mind to reflect on all the time you’ve spent absorbing every minute of it all go down.

All that said, Wicked: For Good sticks the landing. Even in an adaptation where bright colors, brazen emotions, and obvious themes rear themselves, Chu, Holzman, and Fox understand that the emotional crux of the story is between Glinda and Elphaba. It’s a credit to Grande and Erivo, respectively, that they successfully bring these emotions to the forefront, even when dialog is absent and, in some sequences, all they have are their eyes. Wicked: For Good is a satisfactory finale to this story. It could’ve been great, but given what I’ve heard from multiple people regarding the second act of the play, it’s fittingly average. The musical fan in me is just happy it exists.

My review of Wicked: Part I

Starring: Ariana Grande-Butera, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Marissa Bode, Ethan Slater, and Bowen Yang. Directed by: Jon M. Chu.