The first trailer for Wicked: For Good, the sequel to the smash-hit musical starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, has been released.
The sequel arrives a year after Wicked stormed the global box office, with both films telling the origin stories of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, played by Erivo, and Glinda the Good, played by Grande, from The Wizard of Oz.
Wicked: For Good is an adaptation of the second act of the 2003 stage musical Wicked. The musical was based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel of the same name – which was in turn based on the story first told in L Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, adapted into the 1939 film starring Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale.
The trailer for Wicked: For Good shows Elphaba in hiding, for her opposition to the Wizard’s regime, and also teases the arrival of Dorothy, who famously kills Elphaba with a bucket of water in The Wizard of Oz. The actor who will play Dorothy has not yet been named.
The director, Jon M Chu, has said it was “impossible” to make Wicked into one film “without doing some real damage to it”. Both films were cut simultaneously in the editing process before the first film’s release last year.
“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,” Chu said. “We decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one Wicked movie but two.”
Wicked grossed US$755m worldwide on a US$150m budget, becoming the highest-grossing musical film adaptation made to date and landing 10 nominations at the Academy Awards – including best picture – and winning two.
Along with Erivo and Grande as the film’s main characters, Wicked: For Good also stars Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz.
Wicked: For Good will be released in cinemas on 21 November.
