If you’re anything like us, completely obsessed with musical theater, you were eagerly awaiting the Wicked: For Good trailer to drop this week. Now that we have it to rewatch over and over again, we believe this film will be even better than the first. To have such a feeling based on a trailer is special, and we fully believe it. How could we not when there’s a newfound intensity and added complexity to characters that we’ve already come to love?
We have high expectations in the film’s telling of the bittersweet and tragic end of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda’s (Ariana Grande) friendship. The shift from lighter themes that came with Elphaba’s search for belonging to darker tones of disaster and destruction at the end of Wicked (2024) has permanently stuck.
The sequel to Jon M Chu’s beloved adaptation of the Broadway musical looks to have upped the intensity stakes in Oz. The land is now unified by their pursuit of the traitor Elphaba. Glinda, now embraced by the evil Wizard and Madame Morrible, reluctantly spreads propaganda against her best friend’s image to paint her as good. On two opposite sides of a brewing war with Elphaba at the center, the two women and their friends will have to confront the people they’ve become in the time they’ve been apart.
Chu’s Wicked had previously stayed faithful to the musical origins and first act of the Broadway musical. However, we suspect that the final installment will add sprinkles of new dialogue, scenes, and character interactions, while of course staying true to the material. Scenes between Fiyero (the man engaged to Glinda while secretly pining for Elphaba, played by Jonathan Bailey) and Elphaba in this trailer were examples. They were word-for-word adaptations from scenes from the stage musical. In having additional scenes, devoted fans would not only remain engaged, but it would add more depth to the short and rushed second act of the stage musical.
We’re here to break down five moments in the Wicked: For Good trailer that tell us, as a dedicated audience to both film and musical, that Jon M. Chu has taken the time to expand on this story.
MORE: Read our thoughts on ‘Wicked’ (2024) in a roundtable discussion about what we loved and took away from the film!
Elphaba’s Planning for the Rebellion
In Act Two of the musical ‘Wicked’, we never see any true glimpse of Elphaba’s life while in hiding from the Wizard. The only thing we knew was that she had gotten close to monkeys that escaped the palace. Knowing this, it’s easy to assume that she got to bond with other animals out in the wild to gain their trust and support. But we don’t see this effort on stage.
Not until now in Chu’s Wicked: For Good. And we’re very interested in getting more answers to our questions about Elphaba’s new life. They’re basic, but knowing where she sleeps and lives while alone in the world is important to us. It’ll make audiences connect more to her passion toward confronting the Wizard. (If you weren’t rooting for her already just on the basic principle of knowing the guy’s terrible).
Showing Elphaba’s preparation for a fight she knows is coming once she shows her face again is powerful. It gives an explanation to her hard demeanor and hopeless personality after living alone for so long. She believes she’ll be fighting alone when the moment matters. And as much as the thought breaks our hearts, we know that isn’t true.
The trailer shows us that Bailey’s Fiyero doesn’t let Elphaba go through the most important day of their adult lives alone.
Glinda and Fiyero’s Wedding
In a slight change from the musical, we’ll be seeing Fiyero and Glinda walking down the aisle on their wedding day. In the musical, Elphaba’s pursuit of the Wizard disrupts their engagement festivities before they make it to the big day. What follows is a confrontation that ultimately pushes Fiyero to follow his heart when the Royal Guard points their guns at Elphaba. A moment we actually see happen in the Wicked: For Good trailer.
However, the addition of showing Glinda walking down the aisle to Fiyero in a wedding while Elphaba plans to unconsciously disrupt the ceremony adds more emotional weight to the moment. Because once things go wrong, it’ll go wrong on a grand scale of events. We know from Wicked (2024) that Fiyero and Glinda only matched because of their beautiful looks and selfish egos. A bond that quickly became broken once the illusion of happiness faded for Fiyero once he met Elphaba.
He was afraid to speak up for what mattered and show his intelligence until they met. And it’s a lesson and bond with Elphaba that stayed with him upon her absence. He’s pretending to be shallow and self-absorbed because he’s truly unhappy without her. We’re seeing a more emotional side to his character that we don’t get to see in the musical. Even if his scenes are most accurate to the stage version so far. We’ll get to see a colder and more subdued Fiyero in action.
Because he doesn’t want to marry Glinda, and it’s clear all over his face at the altar. He’s only doing it to protect the ones he loves from the Wizard. Fiyero may love Glinda, but it’s not romantic. Not anymore. He only did all of it to protect Elphaba once he found her. And we’ll get to see Fiyero’s good nature re-emerge when fighting alongside her when they reunite.
MORE: Read our review of ‘Wicked’ (2024)!
Madame Morrible Bringing Dorothy to Oz
Now we’re getting excited! Because the Wicked: For Good trailer gave us our first actual look ever at Dorothy and her friends in this story of Oz. In the musical, we only hear Dorothy’s voice as Elphaba antagonizes her for stealing her sister Nessarose’s shoes.
The small sprinkles of new information in canon allow for the story to flow smoothly as new characters get introduced. Showing us the sequence of Morrible’s summoning to Dorothy’s arrival to her confrontation with the Wizard makes us connect with her. Because she won’t be in the background or faceless anymore. She’ll have a storyline of her own as she explores Oz and tries to make her way back home. While also making us sympathetic for both her and Elphaba, because the consequences of her arrival change both of their lives.
Giving a face to a voice we only hear in the musical version will give audiences a fresh take on such an iconic group of characters that originated on film in The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Elphaba and Glinda’s Last Moment of Happiness
The second act of Wicked, the musical, was heartless in giving audiences barely anything to smile about when it came to Elphaba and Glinda’s reunion and final interactions. Surely, it was to make us cry our eyes out when the realization settles in that these two wouldn’t have a happy ending in being best friends for life.
While the Wicked: For Good trailer tells us they’ll stay true to the musical’s ending, we have to talk about the new scenes between the two women.
Because you can’t fix or make up for every mistake you make. It’s a hard truth that Glinda has to confront when she reunites with Elphaba after the Wizard’s encounter. Her actions in convincing Elphaba to stay were sweet and honest. But you could just see the despair and anguish on Elphaba’s face in these moments of the trailer.
It’s true that Elphaba wants to have a few good and happy moments with the person she missed dearly. But Elphaba is stuck, for good reason, in wanting to change the world. And that means leaving Glinda behind.
Which makes these new moments of Elphaba and Glinda spending time together so heartbreaking. Because time has passed and they’ve changed them from the schoolgirls they once were to adults with varying purposes in life. Purposes that ultimately divide them in the end.
Their time to be in each other’s lives has passed. It’ll be a hard truth to swallow after seeing a moment of happiness between them after everything they’ve been through. And it’s their goodbye that follows that’ll have us in tears now that we know they got to share a lasting memory of dancing together.
Elphaba Isn’t Staying Quiet
In quite a big change from the musical, Elphaba isn’t handling things with the Wizard in a quiet exchange of truce between two people. She won’t be accepting any attempt at a deal for her life. She won’t be hiding or running away at the thought of being found by the citizens of Oz. At least not yet. Because we won’t know how the Wizard reacts to Elphaba’s outward attempts to take him down until it happens. And it hasn’t happened yet.
From the looks of the Wicked; For Good trailer, Elphaba will be in the sky writing messages about the Wizard for everyone in Oz to see. She’ll be fighting back with an anger that tells everyone that she’s there. She’s watching everything. At the core of it all, she simply wants her people to know the truth behind the Wizard’s lies. Elphaba wants them to be informed and begin questioning the authorities that are the true wicked ones, not her.
One of the biggest takeaways we’ve walked away from after watching this trailer is that Elphaba is trying to even out the odds against her. She’s strong-willed and passionate toward the causes that matter to her. She won’t turn her head down or walk away when she’s doing something courageous. If she has to walk headfirst into danger and accept that she isn’t walking out, she’ll do it. It’s what makes her who she is. If the Wizard wants a war of the people against Elphaba, that’s what he’ll get.
But she also has the power to control the narrative. It’s a power that she looks to grasp with both hands in Wicked: For Good. We cannot wait to root for her every step of the way.
Have you seen Universal Pictures Wicked: For Good trailer yet? What’d you think? Let us know in the comments below!
