Wicked Complicated

Hero Image

Title

Wicked Complicated

Subhead

By Ben Elliott

Body Block 1

If you remember last year’s adaptation of Wicked for its spectacle and charm, the opening sequence of its sequel, Wicked: For Good. — where Elphaba (now known as the Wicked Witch of the West) flies in to liberate forced animal laborers being abused as they construct the yellow brick road — might leave you confusazzled and distressulated.

Where the dissolution of animal rights and the creeping fascism of the Wizard’s regime was a subplot of the first Wicked, it’s firmly the focus here. Gone are the hair flips and tap dancing — if Part I was about building the Wonderful World of Oz, Part II is designed to tear it all down..

Two friends chasing floating legs in a red room from House, 1977

Wicked: For Good, 2025

Set a year after the end of the first movie, For Good thrusts the students of Shizz University out into new roles: Glinda (Ariana Grande) is now the face of the Wizard’s (Jeff Goldblum) propaganda campaign, Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) a captain in the Wizard’s Guard, and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) branded an enemy of the state. We get quick flashbacks to remind us of the love between these characters — and how far their public personas have pulled them apart..

A young woman holding a severed head in House, 1977

Wicked: For Good, 2025

There are moments when you might miss the gleeful charm of the first Wicked, especially with Grande’s Glinda, whose deft comedic ability only occasionally peeks through the turmoil here. But it’s a credit to director Jon M. Chu that the heavier subject matter never feels like a slog. Largely mapped over the events of The Wizard of Oz, Chu delivers a steady string of emotional payoffs that keep the story moving.

It all builds an emotional complexity that’s hard for blockbusters of this size to pull off — if they attempt it at all. No one is inherently good or bad in Wicked: For Good. It’s only when its characters stop doing the work, stop trying to make the world a better place, that they truly become wicked.

Showtimes

Showtimes Nuremberg | 10:30AM Now You See Me: Now You Don't | 10:45AM, 1:30PM, 4:45PM, 8:00PM Wicked: For Good | 1:00PM, 2:00PM, 4:15PM, 5:15PM, 7:30PM, 8:30PM

Marketing Signup

Footer