It doesn’t matter if you’ve never seen the musical, have no interest in the film or are left cold by red carpets: Wicked season is here again, and you will be made to pay attention. After last year’s chaotic press tour for the first instalment, giving rise to some of 2025’s biggest and most bizarre pop culture moments, all eyes are now on the rollout of the sequel Wicked: For Good and the theatre-kid capers of its stars, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Here’s what you need to know.
1. They are still ‘holding space’ for one another …
Last year’s Wicked press tour was an infamous love-in for Grande and Erivo. Such was the intensity of their connection and mutual affection, both were frequently moved to tears in interviews. The enduring image was of Erivo stroking Grande’s index finger in response to a journalist’s unintelligible remark about people “holding space” with the song Defying Gravity. Grande poked fun at her and Erivo’s histrionics, declaring them “insufferable” and “the most annoying” – but their bond still appears unbreakable. At the New York premiere of Wicked: For Good on Monday, Erivo declined to give interviews to preserve her voice. Grande was reported to also be skipping press “in solidarity”, but couldn’t help plugging her costar’s forthcoming projects “as Erivo looked on smiling”, as CNN described the scene. Asked what they were feeling, ahead of the film’s final instalment, Grande spoke for them both: “overwhelming gratitude”. Late on Thursday, she tested positive for Covid.
Cynthia Erivo has lost her voice and will not be doing interviews at the ‘Wicked: For Good’ premiere in New York tonight, Variety reports.
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 17, 2025
Ariana Grande will also be skipping interviews in solidarity. pic.twitter.com/UYgayrrMNt
2. … and, often, ‘holding a hand’
The sight of two accomplished thirtysomething women compulsively fussing over each other, gushing and otherwise behaving like teenagers has sparked much speculation online. Erivo and Grande share not one, not two, but four matching Wicked tattoos, including “For good” on their inside palms. The most “intense” one has not been shared with the public, Grande told the Today Show last year. This week, on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, Grande laughed off Poehler’s comment about her and Erivo’s touchy-feely relationship, saying that they were only looking “to take care of each other”. “I channel a lot of energy through my hands,” Grande said. “I’m always holding a hand.”
3. At least one ‘fan’ has taken it too far
At last week’s Singapore premiere of Wicked: For Good, an Australian man vaulted the red-carpet barricade and rushed to tackle Grande. Video footage showed Erivo instantly stepping in to shield her before the assailant was pinned by security. He was later identified as 26-year-old Johnson Wen, a self-described “troll” who has built an online profile around disrupting public events. After his arrest, Wen posted footage on Instagram of him grabbing Grande with the caption: “Dear Ariana Grande Thank You for letting me Jump on the Yellow Carpet with You ❤️”, which was widely condemned by commenters. On Monday, he was charged with being a public nuisance and sentenced to nine days in prison.
4. Grande and Slater are ‘doing great!!!’
Grande’s partner, actor and singer Ethan Slater, also appears in Wicked: For Good. The pair met in December 2022 while working on the first film, and reportedly got together while both were still married (Grande to real estate broker Dalton Gomez; Slater to therapist Lilly Jay, who went on to publish a thinly veiled essay about her experience of the split). Grande and Slater have regularly featured on each other’s social media. In promoting Wicked: For Good, however, they have not done any press together and have appeared far apart in group shots, prompting persistent speculation of a split. Sources “close to the couple” recently felt moved to shoot down the rumours, telling TMZ that “everything’s great between them, and … they always make time for each other”.
5. The film is turning stars vegan ‘for good’
Jeff Goldblum, who plays The Wizard of Oz, recently told This Morning that working on the film – which deals with themes of animal cruelty – led him to give up eating meat. Grande and Erivo are both longtime vegans, while Michelle Yeoh follows a “plant-based diet”, emboldening Peta to target their co-star Jonathan Bailey. In a somewhat laboured PR stunt, the animal rights organisation sent Bailey a bottle of non-dairy Baileys (Baileys for Bailey, geddit?) in the hopes of encouraging him to “join the vegan side of his Wicked family, and let the plant-based magic begin!” Bailey has not yet engaged, but did, however, praise the film’s message of tolerance (and expressed hope that it would reach the men who had bullied him at school).
6. The yellow-brick road is paved with gold …
As Bailey crowingly suggested, his former bullies may well have “tickets for opening night”. In the UK, advance tickets to Wicked: For Good were selling at more than twice the rate of the first film, according to Vue. Odeon had likewise sold more than 250,000 presale tickets as of Wednesday, almost double what it sold for part one. Whether you intend to see it or not, the film has been inescapable in endless product tie-ins (including, notably, Robinsons “Amazafying” Elphaba-green squash). Last month, the US version of Dancing With the Stars landed its first-ever movie tie-in with “Wicked Night”, featuring the films’ choreographer. This week, London’s Brick Lane was paved with promotional yellow bricks above a Tracey Emin-type light installation, holding space for lyrics from the song, For Good. No wonder Grande has kept the door open for a third movie to be somehow adapted from the musical, recently saying: “There’s always a farewell tour.”
7. … and may be leading Grande away from music
Grande revealed to Amy Poehler that her upcoming tour – her first in seven years, and finally promoting her 2024 album Eternal Sunshine – will likely be her last for a “long, long, long, long time”. Grande’s description of it as a “last hurrah” won’t be welcomed by her fan army of Arianators, but tracks with her move away from pop since Wicked. Not only is she being hotly tipped for an Oscar nomination for Wicked: For Good, Grande will star alongside Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller in the Meet the Fockers threequel Focker-in-Law, scheduled for release next November. In the meantime, she has cultivated other interests, telling Poehler that she has got into birdwatching via the Merlin app, which she declared “fabulous”. The next string she would like to add to her bow is the study of insects. “I wish I were a person who, like, had endless entomology knowledge,” she said. “I could look at a bug and be like, ‘Ah, Lepidoptera pieridae’.” Arianators may be well advised not to hold their breath for an eighth album.
