Why Wicked: For Good Made One Major Change From The Broadway Musical

"Wicked" has proved to be a gigantic success in its leap from the stage to the screen. The original Broadway production was a smash for years, but Universal and director Jon M. Chu's movies have taken the "Wizard of Oz" prequel to the next level, particularly in light of "Wicked: For Good" rapidly becoming one of the biggest movies of 2025. The second chapter in the musical adaptation had to make some major changes, perhaps most notably to the music itself.

There was much debate about splitting "Wicked" into two movies, but that's what Universal did. To make the second half of the story stand on its own, much had to be added and amended. One of the biggest changes is the musical number "Wonderful," which, in the movie version, features Ariana Grande's Glinda. That wasn't the case in the play.

"I wasn't precious about anything. I think I was the one who suggested putting Glinda in 'Wonderful,' which she was never a part of in the play," screenwriter Dana Fox explained to Deadline of adapting "Wicked" for the screen. She also revealed how the decision to add Glinda to the song came to be, which wasn't received with open arms at first:

"I said, 'This is a two-hour movie, and these are the stars of the movie, and they're not in it enough together.' We're going to die if they're in the movie the way that they're in it in the play. There's no way we're going to make it. So, I suggested the change, and there were gasps across the earth. People fell out of frame on the Zoom. But then, it was thankfully to Stephen [Schwartz] and Winnie [Holzman] for being so open and so wonderful, they were like, 'That's a great idea. Let's do that.'"

"Thank God they were such incredible collaborators, because I could suggest these sorts of unholy things, and they were open to them and ran with them," Fox added. "My takeaway from the whole project is that I will never forget my collaboration with Winnie."

In the original Broadway show, it is the Wizard of Oz himself who sings "Wonderful." Jeff Goldblum plays the Wizard in "Wicked" and "Wicked: For Good." As Fox explained, adding Glinda to the number helped inject a little more interaction between that character and Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba, which is central to the overall story.

To whatever degree this is controversial, it worked. Audiences are over the moon for "For Good" in the early going. Fox also spoke more broadly about the challenges of splitting "Wicked" into two parts. They had to take 45 minutes of a play and turn it into a two-hour movie, which meant taking everything that happens in act two of "Wicked" and expanding upon it. That was no easy task and it always meant that major changes were going to be made:

"The second movie was so difficult to break in a good way. In a challenging way, that was exciting to all of us because it's a 45-minute second act of a play that's designed to be the ending of a thing that you just saw. The second movie is two hours and 15 minutes long. So, we had to create a lot of new material for this one and really dig deep into it without, in any way, upsetting the fans who seem to feel that Wicked, the play, is theirs, which is wonderful."

"Wicked: For Good" is in theaters now.