Wicked is already one of the biggest movies of 2024, telling the story of Elphaba, a student in the magical land of Oz who eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, the main antagonist of the original The Wizard of Oz film. Wicked has received great reviews since its release, and its box office numbers have smashed records left and right, making the film one of the top grossing releases of the year. However, Wicked is only part one of the story, and the upcoming sequel will finish it off, hopefully as strongly as this film did.
There are plenty of directions that Wicked 2 could go, which have been set up by the many different plot threads that are present throughout the first film. The split happens at the halfway point, between acts 1 and 2 of the Wicked musical, and there is one line thrown in at the end of the first film that references the film’s midpoint break in a very creative way. It isn’t spelled out directly, and the line makes sense in the context of the film, but it is still a clever reference to the film’s status as a two-part project.
Dr. Dillamond References Wicked Being Split In Two Parts With One Line
The Line Is Said To The Audience As Much As The Characters
When Dr. Dillamond is being forcibly removed from his classroom, he yells out “you’re not being told the whole story” before the door is slammed shut in his face. This is obviously mostly in reference to Wicked‘s animal storyline, as the students aren’t being told what is actually happening to the animals, they are just being told the story that the Wizard wants them to hear. However, the line can also be read as referring to the fact that Wicked‘s whole story isn’t going to be told in the movie, and that the rest will happen in the second part.
How Wicked Splitting The Musical In Two Parts Helped The Movie
The Movie Is Much Better Because Of Its Longer Length
The Wicked films are going to be significantly longer than the musical, likely around double the length, considering Wicked part 1 itself has the same runtime as the entire musical, around two and a half hours. While that may seem excessive, it seems to have helped the movie quite a bit, or at least just the first part. Wicked was able to not only include every song from the musical, but it was also able to expand on all of its many storylines without leaving any to fall by the wayside.
Wicked was able to expand the roles of many of the side characters, making characters like Madame Morrible and Dr. Dillamond even more interesting than they were in the original stage incarnation. The split also helped to make the story fit the new medium much better, as there are very different expectations for a stage musical and a feature film, so translating the original one to one might have made Wicked feel rushed and undercooked, and simply a poor imitation of the musical.
9/10
Wicked
Wicked adapts the Broadway musical into a two-part film, following the unlikely friendship between Elphaba, born with green skin, and Glinda, a popular aristocrat, in the Land of Oz. As they navigate their contrasting paths, they evolve into Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.
- Runtime
- 160 Minutes
- Cast
- Cynthia Erivo , Ariana Grande , Michelle Yeoh , Jeff Goldblum , Jonathan Bailey , Ethan Slater , Marissa Bode , Bowen Yang , Bronwyn James , Keala Settle , Peter Dinklage , Aaron Teoh , Grecia De la Paz , Colin Michael Carmichael , Adam James , Andy Nyman , Courtney Mae-Briggs , Sharon D. Clarke , Jenna Boyd
- Director
- Jon M. Chu
- Distributor(s)
- Universal Pictures
