By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN? 21 November 2025 on its day of release RUNTIME: 137 minutes

Wicked (Part 1) was a 5-star hit because it built on the beloved Act 1 of a classic musical giving it the visual flair and world-building that only cinema can with a superstar cast.

• Read on for reasons including how this is the satisfying conclusion to a tale which speaks to our lives now set up beautifully by its magical 1st film

10 Oscar nominations – wins only for Best Costume and Best Production Design – and a $759 million box office from a $150 million budget, could its sequel, based on the musical’s plot-heavy and darker Act 2 ever match it?

Wicked begins as an origin story of what is essentially a prequel to the classic 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz starring Judy Garland but focussing on the Wicked Witch of the West.

At the end of the 1st film, or Act 1 of the musical, our green-skinned hero Elphaba, given life by the extraordinarily voiced Cynthia Erivo, has rejected Jeff Goldblum’s Wizard Of Oz and vowed to fight injustices including his subjugation of the talking animals of the land.

Her best friend, the Good Witch Glinda, played with unexpected emotional depth by Ariana Grande, resolves to stick by the Wizard to rally the kingdom’s spirits by forcing Jonathan Bailey’s lovetorn (Richard II, Bridge Theatre) Fiyero into marriage while Michelle Yeoh’s press secretary spins the narrative of the Wicked Witch’s threat to Oz.

Wicked: For Good uses the familiar beats of the visit to Oz by Judy Garland’s Dorothy to reframe the events of that film while also giving us back stories for familiar characters like the Wicked Witch of the East, the tinman, scarecrow and cowardly lion.

It doesn’t have showstopper Defying Gravity in its armoury because that was deployed at the end of the 1st film but it does use it as an instrumental and to set up the titular number For Good which is as emotionally devastating as Gravity was bombastic as we reach the conclusion of the tale of 2 extraordinary women who become unlikely best friends.

Both Erivo, who returns to the West End stage in a 1-woman Dracula next year and won a Best Film/TV Actress monsta for Wicked (Part 1), and Grande were Oscar nominated this year and if they are so again in 2026 would become the 1st people ever to be shortlisted for playing the same character 2 years in a row.

For us Wicked: For Good is grittier fare than its predecessor and those moments where it chooses to pull away from the darker elements of its tale – the scene where Glinda sees in shadow the Wicked Witch’s fate through the crack in the door she is hiding behind and Fiyero’s torture – is all the stronger for it.

There was a round of spontaneous and totally deserved applause at the film’s finish at the Greenwich Picturehouse showing we saw because Wicked: For Good is the satisfying grown-up conclusion to a tale which speaks to our lives now set up beautifully by its magical 1st film.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Wicked: For Good Tickets
• Have you seen a Wicked show/film before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
• Enjoyed this preview? Follow monstagigz on Twitter @NeilDurham, email neildurham3@gmail.com and check us out on Instagram and Facebook