Wicked: For Good Review – Lands on Shallow Ground!

November 23, 2025December 31, 2025 Stephanie Young 6 Comments

Although Wicked has stated that it has come to its epic conclusion, only a year has passed since it became a cultural moment for theater and film lovers alike. Even with the popularity of the Broadway show over ten years ago, Wicked has never had as much of an impact on entertainment as it did last year when Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande stepped into the roles of Elphaba and Glinda.

Wicked (2024) was highly praised for its performances and musical numbers where one couldn’t go outside without hearing the song Defying Gravity playing on the radio, in stores, and on advertisements. Just as any first act of a musical comes to an end, the second act must follow, often exhibiting the story’s deeper thematic elements and drama. Wicked: For Good continues and concludes the story behind Elphaba and Glinda’s friendship, including the story of Dorothy we all know and love from the Wizard of Oz. Unfortunately, this film fails to deliver a meaningful conclusion due to its inability to decide whether it wants to stick to the rules or chart its own path.

Elphaba has made her choice. She abandons the land of Oz after learning the truth of the “magical” Wizard of Oz and the abuse to its animal residence. Where Elphaba decided to take a stand and defy the Wizard, Glinda has become the face of “good” for the people of Oz, encouraging them to look to brighter days amidst the Wicked Witch’s presence. Torn between maintaining her status amongst Oz’s people or joining Elphaba’s resistance, Glinda faces heartbreak and grand obstacles in the face of “good” and “evil.”

Wicked: For Good greatly loses its steam since the first film, never able to maintain the high stakes that loom over the film throughout. The personalities and inner identities of Elphaba and Glinda hardly show through as the film relies on its predecessor and what we saw before to guide our emotions in its sequel.

However, by being split into two films the momentum of the first is lost, forcing audiences to compare the two, highlighting the faults in Wicked: For Good that are much clearer. Making a longer film merging the first and second act of the original musical would have allowed the film to maintain its atmosphere and stakes in a much more meaningful way.

Wicked: For Good’s most dire issue is the inclusion of Dorothy and her impact on the events of the film so heavily. It goes without saying that the original musical features Dorothy and her influence on the grand scheme of the story as it relates to The Wizard of Oz. It also goes without saying that there would be no Wicked without Dorothy’s story and her defeat of the Wicked Witch of the West.

With that said, this film’s execution of Dorothy and her three friends allows her to pull all of the strings of the story, utilizing her in a half-baked fashion that leaves audiences in bewilderment as to how little she is on screen while having the largest impact on a story that should have been Elphaba’s and Glinda’s.

The audience catches glimpses of Dorothy and friends playing out the events of the story Wizard of Oz we all know. However these glimpses have major implications on the story that tears audiences between acknowledging how the story goes and the abandonment of Elphaba and Glinda having more of an impact in their own story. Jon M. Chu would have been better off either choosing to include Dorothy’s story to a much larger extent to see why and how her actions are making such an impact or had her in shadows to pay homage to the original story while centering it on the characters who deserve it.

This could have been done by creating a larger perspective from Fiyero (Jonathon Bailey) point of view as he becomes the scarecrow to show just how much Dorothy is impacting Oz and the lives of Glinda and Elphaba. In this way, we could then see real struggles between Glinda and Elphaba after the entrance of this mysterious girl. Wicked: For Good begins the audience to have prior knowledge of The Wizard of Oz to understand its story while also bending its “true events” from the original story. In this, it never decides whether it wants to be something borrowed or something new.

Although most if not all audience members seeing Wicked: For Good have seen the original Wizard of Oz film, a film’s script should never depend on previous knowledge from other films when it is considered its own story. By doing this, the film makes little sense as to how this random girl from Kansas is creating such a stir, especially by showing next to nothing as to what she is doing and how it is affecting everyone else. Wicked: For Good lands on surface level ground never flying to new heights and understanding how the medium of film differs from Broadway execution.

‘Wicked: For Good’ Rating – 2/5

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Stephanie Young

Senior Associate Writer at Just for Movie Freaks

Stephanie is a huge film fanatic, a librarian, and a baker! And when she isn't busy doing these activities, she is running around with her Australian Cattle Dog!

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