Wicked Part Two

Wicked: Part Two is an upcoming American musical fantasy film directed by Jon M. Chu and written by Winnie Holzman. The sequel to Wicked (2024), it is the second of a two-part film adaptation of the stage musical of the same name by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman, which in turn was based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire and characters from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The film stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, with Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Keala Settle, and Peter Dinklage in supporting roles.

Wicked Part Two is set for release by Universal Pictures in the United States on November 26, 2025.

Cast

 * Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp, a misunderstood young woman born with green skin who has now become the Wicked Witch of the West
 * Ariana Grande as Galinda Upland, a popular young woman who has now become Glinda the Good
 * Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, the press secretary for the Wizard and former Headmistress of Shiz University
 * Jeff Goldblum as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
 * Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar, a Winkie prince who is Glinda's boyfriend.
 * Ethan Slater as Boq, a Munchkin and Nessarose's husband who is still in love with Glinda
 * Marissa Bode as Nessarose Thropp, Elphaba's paraplegic younger sister who has now become the Wicked Witch of the East
 * Peter Dinklage as the voice of Doctor Dillamond, a goat and former Shiz University professor who is imprisoned by the Wizard.
 * Bowen Yang as Pfannee, one of Glinda's former college friends
 * Bronwyn James as ShenShen, another of Glinda's former college friends

Additionally, Aaron Teoh will appear as Averic, Fiyero's friend; Grecia de la Paz will appear as Gilligan; Colin Michael Carmichael will appear as Professor Nikidik, a professor at Shiz University; and Adam James will appear as Glinda's father, another new character created for this film. The character Dorothy Gale, a Kansas farm girl who is accidentally transported to the Land of Oz by a tornado with her dog Toto, will also be featured.

Development
A film adaptation for the Broadway musical Wicked was announced in 2012, with a scheduled release date of December 20, 2019. After numerous delays, the film eventually secured a release date of November 27, 2024. In April 2022, director Jon M. Chu announced that the adaptation would be split in two parts, Wicked: Part One and Wicked Part Two, saying:"As we prepared the production over the last year, it became impossible to wrestle the story of 'Wicked' into a single film without doing some real damage to it ... 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. 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 for these beloved characters."

Pre-production
In June 2022, Stephen Schwartz added, while confirming that a new song will be written for one of the two films: "We found it very difficult to get past 'Defying Gravity' without a break ... That song is written specifically to bring a curtain down, and whatever scene to follow it without a break just seemed hugely anti-climactic ... Even as a very long single movie, it required us cutting or omitting things that we wanted to include and that we think fans of the show and the story will appreciate. What we have discussed is that changes need to be 'additive,' to use (producer) Marc Platt's term. They need to add something to the story or the characters. They can't just be changes to do something different. I feel confident that by the time the movie is made, if we all continue to have the same degree of input, I could have a conversation with anyone who has a question about any of the changes made from the stage show and justify why I think it's better for the movie."

In November 2022, Schwartz revealed that the film will include two new songs "to meet the demands of the storytelling."

Filming
Principal photography began alongside Part One, and had nearly been completed by July 2023 before production was suspended due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Both films resumed on January 24, 2024 and concluded on January 26. The vocals of the actors during the musical numbers were recorded live on set, with Academy Award-winning production sound mixer Simon Hayes collaborating with Chu on the recordings of the actors' vocals, using a variation of the same recording techniques that were implemented on Les Misérables (2012). Chu also cited Steven Spielberg's 1991 film Hook as a source of inspiration for the film's use of large-scale sets and practical effects to bring the many elements of the Land of Oz to life, including nine million colorful tulips planted on location to surround the Munchkinland set and an actual Yellow Brick Road paved on the ground with real mud.

Post-production and visual effects
On February 6, 2024, it was confirmed on Twitter that Industrial Light & Magic and Framestore will provide the film's visual effects with Pablo Helman serving as visual effects supervisor, and that post-production work was in progress, with Chu working remotely with editor Myron Kerstein via communication through the newly-released Apple Vision Pro.

Music
The soundtrack albums for both this film and Wicked will be released by Republic Records/Verve Label Group, Grande and Erivo's respective record labels. In July 2024, it was revealed that John Powell had composed the incidental underscore for the film, reprising his duties from the previous film. Jeff Atmajian updated William David Brohn's original orchestrations for the songs and enlarged the orchestra from the stage version's original 23 musicians to 80 for the film.

Release
Wicked Part Two is scheduled to be released theatrically, including engagements in RealD 3D, IMAX and Dolby Cinema, on November 26, 2025 by Universal Pictures, after previously being set for a December 25, 2025 release.

Marketing
Exclusive work-in-progress footage from both this film its predecessor, featuring first listens to Grande and Erivo's respective renditions of "Popular" and "Defying Gravity", was presented at CinemaCon on April 26, 2023, introduced on stage by Universal Pictures chairwoman Donna Langley. The first trailer for the first film, in the form of a 60 second "First Look," premiered during Super Bowl LVIII on February 11, 2024, showing brief clips from Part Two which confirmed that the film would contain new scenes to expand the plot of the musical's second act, including one of the Wizard ordering Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion to hunt down Elphaba, as depicted in the original The Wizard of Oz story.