@Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Wicked : For Food : Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), now demonized as The Wicked Witch of the West, lives in exile, hidden within the Ozian forest while continuing her fight for the freedom of Oz’s silenced Animals and desperately trying to expose the truth she knows about The Wizard (Jeff Goldblum). Glinda, meanwhile, has become the glamorous symbol of Goodness for all of Oz, living at the palace in Emerald City and reveling in the perks of fame and popularity.

Under the instruction of Madame Morrible (Oscar® winner Michelle Yeoh), Glinda is deployed to serve as an effervescent comfort to Oz, reassuring the masses that all is well under the rule of The Wizard. As Glinda’s stardom expands and she prepares to marry Prince Fiyero (Olivier award winner and Emmy and SAG nominee Jonathan Bailey) in a spectacular Ozian wedding, she is haunted by her separation from Elphaba. She attempts to broker a conciliation between Elphaba and The Wizard, but those efforts will fail, driving Elphaba and Glinda only further apart.

The aftershocks will transform Boq (Tony nominee Ethan Slater) and Fiyero forever, and threaten the safety of Elphaba’s sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), when a girl from Kansas comes crashing into all their lives. As an angry mob rises against the Wicked Witch, Glinda and Elphaba will need to come together one final time. With their singular friendship now the fulcrum of their futures, they will need to truly see each other, with honesty and empathy, if they are to change themselves, and all of Oz, for good.

Director : Jon M. Chu

Producer : Marc Platt, David Stone

Screenwriter : Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox

Distributor : Universal Pictures

Production Co : Marc Platt Productions

Rating : PG (Some Suggestive Material|Action/Violence|Thematic Material)

Genre : Kids & Family, Musical, Fantasy, Adventure

Original Language : English

Release Date (Theaters) : Nov 21, 2025, Wide

Box Office (Gross USA) :  $297.6M

Runtime : 2h 17m

@Courtesy of Universal Pictures

 

‘Wicked: For Good’ : Press Conference With Star Cynthia Erivo

 

Q:  When you look back on this project, was there a specific moment when you realised it would not only change your career but also change your life forever?

CYNTHIA ERIVO: I don’t think I could have fully prepared for what has happened since the first movie, and what is happening now. I knew that it would be a life-changing project from the beginning. I didn’t quite know the gravity of what it would be. But I knew from the beginning that it would be something that would change my life. I knew it was something that would challenge me, something that would change the way I see my art, and increase the love I have for it.

Q: How was it to be able to craft your performance and the sound of your new song in ‘Wicked For Good’ from the ground up?’

CYNTHIA ERIVO: Delightful. Music is my other language, whenever I get the chance to dive into it, I am in heaven. To work on the new song in ‘Wicked’ with Stephen Schwartz was an honor and really, really fascinating to discover and mine it for the story that was true to Elphaba. Because it’s one thing to sing a new song, and it’s another to be able to make this version of the character’s own, and that was lovely. To find the new nuances within the music, it was always a new learning curve for me. We sing the way we sing, the other Elphaba’s sing the way they sing, there’s no way I can mimic or remake, or double what has been before. All I can do is use the tool I have to make the sound I make. It’s tailored to what I have already, and I’m just glad I could be a part of it, to be honest. 

Q:  What are some aspects of Jon M. Chu’s directorial style and guidance as a filmmaker that unlocked the fullest potential of this story, from your perspective as an actor?’ 

CYNTHIA ERIVO: He’s so playful. He’s so curious. There is a will to get at the core of what each of the characters wants. Everybody has their own language when it comes to making the art that they want to make. He learnt my language, we would always do different takes, we would always capture things. He started to realise that, if I was able to just play and do something, throw anything at the wall, we would always get what we needed. So I would exhaust everything, and do as much as I can. He was like: “It’s either the first or the last take with you, so we’re just gonna go until we have the last, or we’ll go until we have the first. Whichever it is, we’ll go.” There’s such a joy about doing that, about going on the journey with you. I had so much fun, I felt safe to dive in. He’s a very special human being and an incredible director, he trusts you, and because he believes in you, you just don’t want to let him down. There is a part of me that so loved being on the set just because it was him directing. If I could stay an extra hour or two just doing something, I would stay, because I loved working with him.

Q: Did your concept of good and evil change while making the film?

CYNTHIA ERIVO: I’ve never seen Elphaba as an evil character. But what was clarified for me is that perception is everything. What we see as good, and what we see as evil can be warped and shifted, depending on who we are looking at, through what lens we’re looking through. Depending on how you feel about a certain type of person, depending how you feel about the skin the person is living in, depending on how you feel the person sounds or looks, is the lens we look through. And that can shift perspective. And how do we use the word ‘good’: is it really good or is it an apparition of good? The difference between what good actually is, and what good can be perceived to be. What evil actually is, and what evil can be perceived to be. That is what was demystified for me, that perception.

@Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Q: There are so many wonderful songs in both movies. Can you please share with us your process of learning the songs, practising and recording them?’ 

CYNTHIA ERIVO: First I look at lyrics, they’re the touchstone. If you go back to the lyrics and you know what it is you’re talking about, what you’re saying, what’s the story you’re trying to tell, then the melody will be informed. You have your set melody, whatever shifts you decide to make are informed by the story you’re trying to tell. We’ll go back to ‘I’m Not That Girl’: when we were recording it, when we were doing it for film, Jon realised that it had come after a really intense moment of connection, and now was a moment of reflection. So there’s loads of silence before she even says the first word. In order to come into the song, it’s like the admission that this exists. So there’s trepidation. And now it’s not so much about just saying the words, it’s now about understanding what actually happened in this moment. That for me is the process. You start with the lyric, you take the melody, and you combine to find out what story we’re actually telling. You can then decide how much detail to put in it, how much space. I do it bit by bit. 

Q:  What moment from the film are you most proud of?

CYNTHIA ERIVO: Hard to choose. I’m going to be greedy,I’m going to give you two moments. I’m really proud of ‘No Good Deed,’ because we shot it in the space, it was me on my own, there was no-one there, I’m shooting against a blue screen and a plinth and fire and rocks. The dynamism with which we had to shoot it, it’s all in the mind. So I was really proud of being able to do something that was that big, that grand, and still be able to hone into the feeling, the moment. I was really proud of the vulnerability that we were able to achieve in ‘For Good.’ Because there’s a choice to back away from the hurt and pain that they both have to experience. There’s a choice to avoid it.

But we ran headlong into it, I’m really proud of that. Elphaba has often been thought of as a strong character, who is very, very confident. We’ve been able to crack open her vulnerability, crack a softer side of her that hasn’t necessarily been on show before. To reveal the humanity within. That’s something that I’m really proud of, that we humanised this character and made her three-dimensional, someone whose heart really beats, who has guttural instinct, heartbreak, loss and grief, hurt and pain and love and lust. And desire.

Q:  After all of these years, it’s now finally coming to an end. What will be your greatest takeaway from this experience when you look back in say ten to fifteen years from now?’ 

CYNTHIA ERIVO: The way in which people have connected with these characters. The way I’ve connected with the people who made this even possible in the first place. I feel really lucky. I feel really grateful. This has been the ride of a lifetime. These stories that keep coming from people who have watched this movie, it really warms my heart. To be a part of something that does that to people is a privilege. To play a character like this wasn’t just an adventure, but it changed things. It helped people. That shifted the way people feel and think about themselves, that’s really special. 

Q:  When you experience the power of the fanbase, does that change your perspective on your craft at all? Did you learn something new about your craft? 

CYNTHIA ERIVO: There’s no way to prepare for something like this. The work you put in really does matter. There’s something really gratifying in doing work that other performers recognize. That other performers can see as hard work. Sometimes I can discount the work that I’m doing because I love it. Sometimes you can’t really see the way other people see it. The hard work doesn’t feel so much like hard work, until you step away and go: “Oh yeah, that was hard work.” Because when you’re in it you don’t even realize what’s going on, you’re moving from place to place, you know you’ll do whatever you need to do in order to get the story, to tell the story as truthfully as possible.

You will put yourself through crazy things. It will feel like nothing until you’re done, and you don’t realise it. That’s the name of the game. You want to make sure that you can give as much as you can give, to tell the story. Now I can see it through someone else’s eyes, that’s what’s really changed my perspective. I’m getting it back now. People are turning the mirror back on me, and acknowledging that work. I would’ve done that a hundred times over, it reinvigorated my knowledge of the fact that I love the work that I’m doing. I love this work. I love my job. I love being able to tell stories, I love being able to assume a character and then give that back out there. I would do anything I need to in order to represent whichever character I’m playing to the fullest. 

Q:  Was there a small specific detail in your performance or character design that you hope fans notice? Something that might not be obvious on a first watch? 

CYNTHIA ERIVO: This is character design. Her freckles. The reason I knew I was going to have freckles at the beginning is because, by the end I wanted those freckles to have expanded ever so slightly, so that where you would normally have a wart, are beauty spots and freckles. I just put those in because I wanted to take from the idea that perception is everything. Sometimes you see one thing that isn’t actually what you see, and then it gets expanded and turned into something completely different. That’s a tiny little thing that I put in there.

@Courtesy of Universal Pictures

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