What Happens In Wicked: For Good? Major Spoilers From The Musical's Part 2

Contains spoilers for the entire "Wicked" musical — stop reading right now if you don't want to be spoiled before "Wicked: For Good" hits theaters!

Jon M. Chu's blockbuster "Wicked" came out in November of 2024, and it's an understatement to say that his adaptation of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's wildly successful Broadway musical of the same name blew critics and audiences away. It made a major impact at the box office, garnered solid reviews pretty much across the board (including one from Looper's own Cynthia Vinney), and became one of the movies vying for best picture at the Academy Awards, which will take place in March of 2025. (Stars Ariana Grande-Butera and Cynthia Erivo, who play the two leads Glinda and Elphaba, also snagged Oscar nods for their performances in supporting and leading, respectively.) Here's the catch, though, which you'll know if you've seen the movie ... it only covers the first half of the story, meaning that only Act 1 of the musical serves as the source material.

So why was it split in the first place? Well, "Wicked: Part One," which is the movie's full title, ends with Elphaba's humongous number "Defying Gravity," and even Schwartz had to admit that there was no way to simply move on from that. "We found it very difficult to get past 'Defying Gravity' without a break," Schwartz said in a newsletter (via Variety). I "That song is written specifically to bring a curtain down, and whatever scene to follow it without a break just seemed hugely anti-climactic." So with that in mind, what's going to happen in the second movie, "Wicked: For Good?" If you're familiar with the musical, here's a refresher ... and if you're not, stop reading, because we're about to spoil the whole thing!

When Elphaba's younger sister Nessarose Thropp (Marissa Bode, the first disabled actress to play the role in the history of the project) arrives at Shiz University, she's supposed to be studying there on her own ... but after their father Governor Thropp (Andy Nyman) insists that Elphaba look after her sister and Elphaba accidentally casts a spell to keep Nessarose close, they both end up students at the magical school. (Elphaba is convinced to stay by Michelle Yeoh's Madam Morrible, the university's dean of sorcery, after said spell impresses the powerful witch.) As a result, Elphaba bears witness to Nessarose's crush on Boq Woodsman (Ethan Slater), a Munchkin who, in turn, is carrying a torch for Glinda (who, at this point in the story, hasn't yet re-styled her name and is still known as Galinda). At Galinda's request, Boq asks Nessarose to go with him to a party at the off-campus the Stardust Ballroom one night with a bunch of fellow students, and Nessarose falls hard for him.

At the very end of "Wicked: Part One," Madam Morrible broadcasts the "news" that Elphaba, now deemed the Wicked Witch of the West, is a felon and wanted woman; listening to this news on a radio, a shocked Nessarose watches as her father falls to the ground. By Act 2 of the musical, the governor is dead and Nessarose is ruling Munchkinland in his place, but her intention — which is to keep Boq as, basically, a romantic prisoner forever — isn't good. Elphaba, risking her safety to see her sister, tries to reason with Nessarose, but it's no use and, in her desperation, Nessarose casts a spell to keep a fleeing Boq with her by tampering with his heart. Boq nearly dies before Elphaba casts a competing spell to keep him alive, but it has an unfortunate side effect: Boq becomes the Tin Man and no longer needs a heart in the first place. 

When Prince Fiyero Tigelaar of the Winkies arrives at Shiz University in "Wicked: Part One," he's an object of fascination for the entire student body, including and especially Galinda ... and though the two agree that they're "perfect together" in Fiyero's song "Dancing Through Life," it soon becomes obvious that Fiyero has feelings for Elphaba. During a class at Shiz typically taught by the talking goat Doctor Dillamond (voiced by Peter Dinklage), the good doctor is dragged away in front of the entire student body, including Galinda, Fiyero, and Elphaba, and replaced by a professor who announces that he'll perform experiments on a lion cub in order to stop it from ever talking. (This entire incident is part of Oz's subjugation of talking animals, which have long been a part of the fictional country's fabric of society.) Elphaba lets her emotions get the best of her and accidentally casts a spell that uses poppies to put everybody to sleep except for her and Fiyero, and they abscond together into the woods to free the cub and share a tender moment; afterwards, Elphaba sings "I'm Not That Girl," lamenting the fact that, in her mind, Fiyero loves Galinda.

This all changes in Act 2 of the musical, so in "Wicked: For Good," we can expect to see Fiyero and Elphaba reunite and sing the steamy duet "As Long As You're Mine," which lets the two star-crossed lovers finally admit their mutual feelings. (Galinda, now Glinda, will also sing a reprise of "I'm Not That Girl," admitting to herself that she knew Fiyero and Elphaba were in love the whole time.) Things go south for the couple after their song, though; Fiyero, who is now the Captain of the Wizard's Guard (under duress), tries to help Elphaba escape and is captured by the army he supposedly controls, and Elphaba casts a spell from afar trying to protect him from harm in her solo song "No Good Deed."

There's a very brief — like, "blink and you'll miss it" brief — moment in "Wicked: Part One" where Madam Morrible stops an incoming storm so that Elphaba can safely travel to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard of Oz (played by Jeff Goldblum), and in "Wicked: For Good," we'll learn that this moment has absolutely devastating implications. After Fiyero and Elphaba leave the Emerald City together (before his capture), a heartbroken Glinda tells Madam Morrible and the Wizard that they may be able to trick Elphaba into returning if they convince her that Nessarose is in danger. Glinda doesn't mean for anyone to actually harm Nessarose, but seeing as Madam Morrible and the Wizard are both completely evil at this point in the narrative, they cook up their own scheme, with Madam Morrible suggesting a "change in the weather."

That "change" is, of course, the tornado that lifts Dorothy Gale's house to great heights and lets it come smashing down upon Nessarose, killing her while she wears the shoes that once belonged to her and Elphaba's late mother. (They're silver when we see them in "Wicked: Part One" and not ruby red, incidentally; we also only see Dorothy, played in "The Wizard of Oz" by Judy Garland, briefly in the film's introduction but will very likely get acquainted with her in the second film.) This does draw Elphaba back to the Emerald City, and this is where, in the timeline, Fiyero is captured trying to help her escape again. It also drives yet another wedge between the former best friends Elphaba and Glinda, specifically because, as we know from "The Wizard of Oz," Glinda gives Nessarose's shoes to Dorothy after the former's death.

Elphaba and Glinda's relationship throughout the entirety of "Wicked" has, to put it lightly, some ups and downs. After Elphaba enrolls at Shiz as a last-minute addition to the student body, Glinda is forced to share her single room with the green-skinned young witch, but after declaring their mutual enmity in "What Is This Feeling?" and a cruel prank involving a witch's hat, Glinda changes her tune and embraces Elphaba publicly. The two become good friends — "two best friends," as they eventually sing in "One Short Day" upon arriving in the Emerald City together — but their political allegiances remain different. Elphaba is so passionate about freeing the talking animals from the iron fist of the Wizard that she rejects the man she always dreamed would be her mentor shortly after meeting him, while Glinda is passive in a way that she claims is simply a safer way to live and won't go against the status quo along with her friend.

Glinda and Elphaba part ways in "Defying Gravity," and at the beginning of the musical's second act, she's working as the Wizard's spokesperson (something foreshadowed in "Wicked: Part One" when Madam Morrible offers Glinda a hug after Elphaba flies away, which the young witch accepts). The two finally reunite towards the end of the musical and have a lot of grievances to air, and to complicate everything further, Elphaba is holding Dorothy hostage over the purloined shoes. After the former best friends talk, though, Elphaba seems to realize that she needs to turn herself in, at which point she and Glinda sing the duet and homage to their friendship that gives the second half of the film its title: "For Good." The song is a goodbye, because Elphaba is apprehended by a mob of angry Ozians after it ends ... so does Elphaba die?

At the very beginning of "Wicked: Part One," we see Glinda as the Good Witch singing "No One Mourns the Wicked" with a group of Munchkins, all of whom are thrilled that Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, is finally defeated and dead. At this point in the story, Glinda has taken control of Oz and arrested both the Wizard and Madam Morrible for their many crimes, putting the fictional country into much safer hands, but Glinda still has to stick to the story she's been telling, which is that Elphaba is evil and her death is a good outcome for everybody. Here's the thing, though. Elphaba isn't dead.

Right as the mob holding a bucket of water approaches Elphaba after she sings "For Good" with Glinda, Elphaba cleverly uses a trapdoor to escape the attempt on her life and she leaves Oz forever with Fiyero. (There's one catch where Fiyero is concerned; Elphaba's spell did save his life, but she also turned him into the Scarecrow in the process.) Technically, the end of "Wicked" is happy for everybody, even though it probably means that Glinda and Elphaba will never be able to see each other again ... and it's a huge twist for fans of "The Wizard of Oz" that the Wicked Witch of the West not only survives, but escapes with her lover the Scarecrow.

"Wicked: For Good" hits theaters on November 21, 2025.