There are those who believe John M. Chu’s “Wicked: For Good” could contend for Oscars, including Best Picture—and that isn’t a total stretch, considering the first film received numerous nominations.
This sequel faces a tough challenge, as Act I of the stage show is generally considered stronger and more engaging. Of course, the original musical has been around for over two decades, so hopefully Chu and his team have found a way to strengthen Act II and give it the impact it needs.
That said, it’s not surprising to hear that “Wicked: For Good” will be 22 minutes shorter than its predecessor. The runtime for the sequel is 138 minutes. Much of the story was told in the first film, and now the creative team has had to expand the second half as best they could.
As for those Oscar prospects, nobody has actually seen “Wicked: For Good” yet, but that hasn’t stopped it from cracking the top five in Gold Derby’s Best Picture odds, where it currently sits at #4.
Wicked is an adaptation of Holzman and Schwartz’s ultra-popular Broadway musical of the same name, which draws on characters from The Wizard of Oz. The film stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, with Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Jeff Goldblum, and Michelle Yeoh in supporting roles.
Both films actually started production in December 2022. Chu explained that while preparing the production, it became clear they couldn’t compress the story into a single movie without doing “real damage” to the source material.
The film will be released on November 26, 2025.
The source material, for the uninitiated, is Arrowhead Game Studios' co-op shooter — muscle in power armor defending "Super Earth" from bugs and robots in a war game.