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Everything to Know About Wicked Part Two: Release Date, Details & More
With the Broadway musical clocking in at just under three hours, there was no way every detail could fit into one movie.
After more than two decades of development, the hit Broadway musical Wicked is finally coming to the big screen by way of director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights) and Universal Pictures.
But given the fact that the original Broadway show clocks in at close to three hours long, there was no way Chu and his talented production team could fit every last detail of the acclaimed, multi-award-winning stage production into one single film adaptation. As such, Universal made the wise choice to split the epic Wizard of Oz prequel in half along the play's two-act structure.
What to know about Wicked Part Two
Is the Wicked movie in two parts?
Yes! The decision to split the big screen adaptation into a pair of feature-length movies, Wicked and Wicked Part Two, was formally announced back in the spring of 2022 by Chu himself.
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"As we prepared this production over the last year, it became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to wrestle the story of Wicked into a single film without doing some real damage to it," he wrote on social media. "As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions began to feel like fatal compromises to the source material that has entertained us all for so many years. So we decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one Wicked movie, but TWO!!!! With more space, we can tell the story of Wicked as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys of these beloved characters."
When does Wicked Part Two open in theaters?
Wicked Part Two will hit the big screen on November 21, 2025 — one year (minus a day) after the first installment.
What is Wicked Part Two about?
Thanks to the project's cinematographer, Alice Brooks, we know that Part One ends with the performance of "Defying Gravity," in which Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) takes flight on her iconic broomstick after she and Glinda (Ariana Grande) learn the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) is nothing but a power-hungry fraud. This is a perfect end point for the movie, considering the song also marks the conclusion of Act I in the stage musical.
The second act leads into Dorothy's adventure, albeit from the perspective of Elphaba, now unjustly feared by the citizens of Oz, who look to Glinda the Good for protection and comfort. "The first tells how Elphaba becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, and the second tells how her best friend, Glinda, becomes authentically good," Marc Platt teases in the production notes.
Who stars in Wicked Part Two?
Since all of the characters from Act I also appear in Act II of the original stage production, it's safe to assume that the entire cast of Wicked Part One will return for Part Two: Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba), Ariana Grande (Glinda), Michelle Yeoh ( Madame Morrible), Jeff Goldblum (the Wizard of Oz), Jonathan Bailey (Fiyero), Ethan Slater (Boq), Peter Dinklage (Doctor Dillamond), Marissa Bode (Nessarose), Bowen Yang (Pfannee), Bronwyn James (ShenShen), and Keala Settle (Coddle).
Wicked Part One arrives in theaters nationwide this Friday, November 22. Click here for tickets!
