It’s still very much peak Wicked season. But if you’re already dreaming about a potential third movie after seeing For Good, you’re not alone.
While Elphaba and Glinda’s story may be coming to its cinematic conclusion — the two Wicked films generally follow the original Broadway musical’s two-act structure — several fans are hoping for more.
But is Wicked 3 a real possibility? Several members of the cast and creative team have weighed in, and while there’s no Wicked sequel currently in the works, there may be reason to be optimistic about a return to Oz at some point.
Farewell… For Now?
During a recent Q&A session that followed a Screen Actors Guild screening of For Good, Ariana Grande teased: “If we’ve learned anything from Cher, we can count on there always being another farewell tour. So I don’t think anyone’s going anywhere.”
When the moderator playfully wondered if that was “confirmation of Wicked 3,” Grande laughed before clarifying: “No, no, I don’t know. I just think — I mean, first of all, I know that there’s a great peace that’s coming along with this coming out … because people will finally get to know the full truth of these women.”
Whatever the future holds, Grande is holding Glinda and her collaborators close. “No one’s going anywhere. We’re not saying goodbye to anything,” she said in a clip she later shared to Instagram. “These characters will be a part of our hearts always. They’ve changed our lives irrevocably and permanently. I’m so grateful for that.”
Of course, Grande is not the only member of the Wicked team to field questions about the future. At the São Paulo premiere of For Good on Nov. 4, Access Hollywood asked director Jon M. Chu if this was “really the end of the yellow brick road.”
“Listen, you never know… but yes,” he said. “As far as I know, this was always meant to be a two-movie experience.”
While Chu went on to call this the “end of an era,” he didn’t completely close the door on Wicked’s future, adding that “maybe the audience can tell us” after For Good.
The filmmaker later told Variety at the film’s Nov. 17 New York premiere that “there’s a lot of ideas flying around,” but he wanted fans to “enjoy this ride first.”
Bowen Yang told the same outlet that he thinks it best to “leave it here,” but wouldn’t be opposed to a spinoff. “I’m going to pitch a Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead story with my and Bronwyn James’ characters,” he said.
One of the most tantalizing teases about the future of Wicked came from Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, who wrote the music and book for the Broadway musical and returned for the film. Last year, journalist and Oz historian Ryan Jay asked the pair what it would take to get a third and fourth installment. “We’re actually talking about something. It’s under wraps, and we can’t say too much about it,” Schwartz revealed.
Holzman noted, though, that the mystery concept is “not called Wicked Part 3 or 4” — seemingly hinting that if it goes ahead, it wouldn’t necessarily be a straightforward continuation of Elphaba and Glinda’s story.
The Cast Has Been Changed For Good
Even if a true Wicked 3 isn’t on the western horizon just yet, take heart! This is a cast that truly loved working together — see: the matching tattoos and tear-jerking friendship interviews — and they’ve been vocal about their desire to keep collaborating, even beyond the world of Oz.
For example, in a recent interview with Bustle, Cynthia Erivo responded to the idea of telling another love story with her swoony scene partner, Jonathan Bailey. “Oh, I’d love to do a rom-com with him! I think both of us are into figuring that out, at some point,” she agreed.
