As the emerald fog lifts on the final chapter of Universal’s audacious Wicked duology, the verdict is in—and it’s a spellbinding split decision that has Oz aficionados buzzing like a hive of agitated Nifflers. Wicked: For Good, hitting theaters on November 21, 2025, after a promotional whirlwind that left its stars hoarse and hearts aflutter, has conjured a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score of 70% from 187 early reviews, dipping from its predecessor’s soaring 88% but holding firm in “fresh” territory. Yet, the audience Popcornmeter tells a tale of unbridled enchantment: a near-perfect 97% from over 2,500 verified ratings, the highest for any mainstream release this year. Critics applaud the sequel’s deeper emotional dives, powerhouse performances from Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, and Jon M. Chu’s dazzling visual symphony, even as some lament a darker tone that occasionally overwhelms like a sudden cyclone. For fans, it’s pure catharsis—a heartfelt, visually stunning capstone to Elphaba and Glinda’s fractured bond that demands the biggest screen and the softest tissues. In a cinematic landscape starved for spectacle that sticks to the ribs, For Good doesn’t just conclude the saga; it elevates it, proving that even witches can find redemption in the rainbow.
The genesis of this emerald-hued epic traces back to Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, a subversive retelling of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that humanized the green-skinned villainess as a misunderstood activist railing against Oz’s corrupt regime. Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s Broadway adaptation, debuting in 2003, transformed it into a global phenomenon: over 7,000 performances at the Gershwin Theatre, $5.3 billion in ticket sales worldwide, and a fanbase as devoted as the Emerald City’s guards. The stage show’s genius lay in its dual heroines—Elphaba, the outcast with untamed powers, and Glinda, the bubbly blonde masking insecurities behind popularity’s veil—whose unlikely friendship anchors themes of prejudice, power, and the cost of conformity. Universal’s gamble to split the musical into two films, announced in 2021, was a high-wire act: the first installment, released in November 2024, grossed $758 million and snagged 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and dual acting nods for Erivo and Grande. But whispers of “sequel fatigue” and a two-part structure that risked diluting the drama loomed large as For Good barreled toward its bow.
Director Jon M. Chu, whose Crazy Rich Asians proved he could lavish spectacle with soul, picks up the thread mere moments after the first film’s cliffhanger: Elphaba (Erivo), now branded the Wicked Witch of the West, retreats to the haunted forests of Oz, her broomstick a fugitive’s chariot as she rallies silenced Animals against the Wizard’s (Jeff Goldblum) propagandistic puppetry. Glinda (Grande), elevated to the sorority of sorcery as the Good Witch, grapples with her complicity in the regime, her pink palace a gilded cage of public adoration and private regret. The stakes skyrocket: Elphaba’s quest to expose the Wizard’s deceptions unleashes aftershocks that ripple through Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), the reformed playboy now entangled in her revolutionary web; Nessarose (Marissa Bode), the wheelchair-bound governor whose silver slippers symbolize fragile privilege; and Boq (Ethan Slater), the Munchkin everyman whose unrequited crush curdles into tragedy. As Dorothy Gale’s cyclone-tossed arrival from Kansas threatens to upend everything, the witches must reconcile their diverging paths in a climax that fuses Broadway bombast with cinematic sweep. New Schwartz originals like Erivo’s thunderous “No Place Like Home” and Grande’s effervescent “The Girl in the Bubble” join reimagined classics—”For Good,” now a tear-streaked finale, lands like a gut-punch of gratitude.
At the duo’s molten core are Erivo and Grande, whose alchemy as Elphaba and Glinda remains the film’s unyielding wand. Erivo, 38, channels a volcanic vulnerability that builds on her first-film triumph: her Elphaba isn’t just defiant; she’s a woman whose rage is a requiem for lost innocence, her voice—a crystalline blade honed on Harriet‘s spirituals and The Color Purple‘s gospel fire—cracking with raw ache during “No Good Deed,” a number where she wrestles betrayal like a storm-wrestling siren. Critics rave: “Erivo’s Elphaba is a force of nature, her every note a spell that lingers,” writes Nell Minow of Movie Mom, awarding a B+ for the “subtle smolder” in her evolving alliance with Bailey’s Fiyero. Grande, 32, sheds her pop-princess sheen for Glinda’s shadowed sparkle: no longer the airhead archetype, her character navigates fame’s farce with wide-eyed wisdom, her belted highs in “The Girl in the Bubble” a bubbly requiem for superficiality. Jeff York of The Establishing Shot crowns her “phenomenal,” praising the “nuance, charm, fear, and tragedy” conveyed through pauses and doe-eyed despair. Their chemistry—once a tentative tango—blossoms into a bond as unbreakable as the Grimmerie, their final duet a masterclass in mutual metamorphosis.
The ensemble elevates the sorcery to symphonic heights. Bailey, 27, trades Bridgerton‘s Regency rakishness for Fiyero’s revolutionary resolve, his quiet intensity in the Scarecrow transformation sequence drawing comparisons to Hugh Jackman’s brooding Wolverine turns. “Bailey gives Fiyero a quiet smolder… following his heart,” Minow notes, his dance-through-life days yielding to choices that cut deep. Goldblum, 73, chews the Wizard’s scenery with jazz-inflected gusto, his “Popular” remix a villainous vaudeville that skewers showmanship’s sleight-of-hand. Bode, a 2024 Tony nominee for Suffs, imbues Nessarose with tragic tenacity, her silver-slippered tyranny a mirror to Glinda’s gilded guilt. Slater, Grande’s off-screen beau, lends Boq a poignant pathos, his Munchkin melancholy underscoring the saga’s underdog ethos. Cameos from Broadway ghosts—Idina Menzel voicing a spectral echo, Kristin Chenoweth in a meta-Madam Morrible flashback—add layers of legacy, while Michelle Yeoh’s icy Madame Morrible slithers through subplots with Oscar-caliber venom.
Visually, Chu conjures Oz as a living tapestry: Nathan Crowley and Alice Parks’ production design blooms with bioluminescent forests where fireflies form phantom familiars, and the Emerald City’s spires pierce polluted skies like accusatory fingers. Cinematographer Alice Brooks’ lens dances from intimate close-ups—Erivo’s tear-streaked green visage in candlelit caverns—to sweeping spectacles: a cyclone sequence that rivals Twister‘s fury, monkeys marauding through Munchkin markets in a frenzy of feathers and fury. Choreography by Christopher Gattelli, the stage vet behind the original’s “Dancing Through Life,” scales up for screen: the “One Short Day” reprise morphs into a riotous rebellion, bodies blurring in a ballet of brooms and barricades. The score, conducted by Stephen Schwartz himself, swells with orchestral opulence—strings sobbing in “For Good,” percussion pounding like a heartbeat in “No Good Deed”—while Paul Tazewell’s costumes cascade from Glinda’s bubblegum ballgowns to Elphaba’s tattered black capes, each stitch a story of subversion.
The critical chorus is a harmonious discord, with the 70% Tomatometer reflecting a saga satisfied but not stupefied. The consensus? “Taking one last lap down the yellow brick road, Wicked: For Good‘s darker tone and unhurried pacing sometimes get in the way, but this epic conclusion ultimately brings Elphaba and Glinda’s story home in rousing fashion.” Kyle Smith of the Wall Street Journal tempers praise with precision: “That Wicked: For Good falls short of greatness doesn’t mean it’s bad. There’s plenty of cause to rejoicify, notably the visual splendor, the charming central friendship and some pretty songs, notably ‘For Good.'” Caroline Siede of Girl Culture concurs on the emotional pull but flags the intellectual: “While For Good wants to be a movie that inspires audiences to dig deep into its darker political allegories, ironically, it’s best enjoyed if you’re willing to turn off your brain and just get swept along in its emotions.” Jonathan W. Hickman of The Newnan Times-Herald pinpoints the pacing peril: “The box-checking might satisfy fans, but the rush to cover it all puts ‘For Good’s’ closing act firmly behind its immensely emotive predecessor.” Yet, Mike McGranaghan of Aisle Seat champions the closure: “Wicked: For Good is so satisfying that it makes the idea of a two-parter seem like less of a gimmick than it probably is,” rating it 3.5/4 stars.
Critics diverge on the darker detours: the film’s plunge into Oz’s underbelly—Animal internment camps evoking real-world refugee crises, the Wizard’s media manipulations mirroring modern misinformation—earns kudos for timeliness but knocks for tonal whiplash. “The sequel’s commitment to overlapping with The Wizard of Oz feels stretched and repetitive,” notes Screen Rant’s Alex Harrison in an 8/10 review, though he lauds the “exhilaration that rushes back” in musical peaks. Radio Times’ four-star verdict echoes: “While director Jon M. Chu doesn’t quite generate the same emotional heft as the previous film, For Good will surely satisfy Wicked‘s extensive army of devotees.” The overcomplicated ending—a multithreaded maelstrom converging on a cyclone of choices—draws dings for “rushed” resolutions, yet its nonstop spectacle dazzles: sweeping choreography in “March of the Witch Hunters” rivals Les Misérables‘ barricade ballet, visuals so glossy they gleam like polished emeralds.
Audiences, unburdened by such scrutiny, have cast their vote with fervor: that 97% Popcornmeter, fueled by early Amazon Prime screenings on November 17 and 19, screams superfandom satisfaction. “It was exactly what my expectations were—probably even above,” raves one verified viewer, dubbing it an “absolute masterpiece” for Broadway buffs. Another gushes, “Wicked: For Good is a masterpiece at its craft,” praising the “deeply cinematic culmination with a spellbinding final enchantment.” Letterboxd logs overflow with five-star soliloquies: “Se segura Netflix, pq aqui tá o filme do ano!” exclaims one Portuguese fan, while another hails “‘No Good Deed’ at an incomparable level—I wanted to die and reincarnate as Cynthia Erivo’s voice.” Even middling takes glow: a 3.5-star log notes the “insane” vocals of Erivo and Grande, with Fiyero’s arc “very sweet.” Social spheres swirl with synergy—X threads dissect the emotional weight of the witches’ rift, TikToks recreate Glinda’s bubble descent, and Reddit’s r/Wicked subreddit swells with “full-circle” confessions, fans weeping over how the duo “changed each other, for good.”
Box-office crystal balls shimmer bright: analysts project a $150 million domestic opening, rivaling Moana 2‘s splash, with global hauls eclipsing $1 billion. Awards whispers? Erivo’s Elphaba eyes a second Oscar nod, Grande’s Glinda a surprise Supporting contender, while Chu’s direction and Schwartz’s score vie for technical nods. In a year of superhero slumps and sequel satiation, For Good stands as a beacon: dramatic, heartfelt, visually stunning—a conclusion that honors its stage roots while soaring screenward. Longtime devotees, heed the call: experience it on the grandest canvas, where emotions run as high as broomsticks and friendships as enduring as spells. The witches have landed—and Oz will never be the same.
