The main point of Gregory Maguire’s 1995 Wicked novel was to explore The Wizard of Oz through the eyes of its villain, the Wicked Witch of the West, and to probe how wickedness itself can manifest. Through the long-running Broadway production, her story rose to fame. In 2024, the first film adaptation, directed by Jon M. Chu, also centered on the origins of Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba. However, in the recently released sequel Wicked: For Good, fans and critics have spotted a deviation.
If you’ve seen Wicked 2, you may have noticed a lot more Ariana Grande and a little less Erivo. That’s because, from a structural standpoint, For Good isn’t Elphaba’s movie; It’s Glinda’s. While the two films function as companion pieces to tell the entire story, the sequel movie flips the narrative, giving Grande’s “Good Witch” Glinda the central arc and shifting Elphaba into a supporting role. Whether that major switch-up was a good call is likely to be a topic of debate among fans for a long time.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Wicked: For Good.
Ariana Grande’s Glinda Takes the Lead in Wicked: For Good
The second film delves into Glinda’s worldview and closely follows her gradual realization that she has been ignoring the unfolding atrocities and floating through Oz in a “bubble.” While we do see some inner conflict in Elphaba, primarily in her brief reconsideration of “good deeds,” it’s clear that most of her character’s transformation was completed in the first film. For the sake of having a protagonist with a strong arc, Wicked: For Good places Glinda at the thematic center. She is eventually forced to confront the lie of her own fake image and the impact her choices have had on both her relationship with Elphaba and the citizens of Oz. Glinda’s shift of allegiance then becomes the big climactic choice.
In fairness, the story of Wicked has always been about the relationship between these two friends. The fan-favorite song, For Good, is quite literally about how they have both been changed by their colliding fates. It’s the dual-film structure that necessitates reframing the journey into two distinct arcs, one after the other. However, the film also had to make changes to Glina’s story to fill out the sequel, creating even more turmoil in the fandom. On the page and stage, Glinda is more of a tragic and cautionary figure, whose surface-level popularity traps her in a role she can’t escape, while Elphaba ultimately “wins” by embracing her true self, reclaiming her agency, getting the guy, and ultimately finding freedom. Movie Glinda, though, becomes a kind of emotional martyr who more directly overcomes her flaw and ultimately sacrifices her position for Elphaba.
Creatively, the approach makes sense: two films, two protagonists, two arcs meant to mirror one another (and the strategy is paying off big time at the box office). But for fans who always saw Wicked as Elphaba’s saga, the relative sidelining of her journey may feel a little like it’s missing the point.
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