WICKED: FOR GOOD IS GLINDA’S TALE

_{Ariana Grande as Glinda in Wicked: For Good (2025)}

(This article is for everyone who saw Wicked: Part 1. If you have not seen it and don’t want to be spoiled, please do not read this until you see Wicked: Part 1.)

Wicked still is one of the most popular Broadway plays. When they decided to make a film adaptation, I was skeptical, as more often than not, film adaptations of plays do not work. The casting of Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda did not appeal to me. When I watched the trailer, I thought it would not work.

But then I saw the movie, and boy, did it really work. First off, director Jon M. Chu did not merely copy the play. He made this adaptation his own movie. Oz was now a city full of cinematic visuals, something the play couldn’t do. He divided the play into two separate films. Erivo and Grande didn’t sound like the initial Broadway cast of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, but it worked. Both ladies managed to make the characters shine using their unique talents in acting and singing.

In the first movie, we meet Elphaba and Galinda. To me, the first movie was really Elphaba’s movie. From the beginning, she does not plan to attend the school of sorcery. It is her sister who wants to attend. With her green facial features, she seems like a real outcast. She rooms with Galinda, and the two seem completely incompatible as roommates. Galinda is the most popular girl at school. All her classmates like her.  Girls want to be her friends. Boys want to date her.

But there is something Elphaba has that Galinda doesn’t: true sorcery. Madame Morrible (played by Michelle Yeoh) sees this at the very beginning when Elphaba arrives at the school and encourages her to enroll. Morrible knows the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) doesn’t actually have any powers and believes Elphaba is the one who can help the Wizard.

As much as Galinda enjoys being popular, she really wants to be a sorceress herself. She recognizes Elphaba’s magic, and the two of them eventually understand each other and become good friends.

Animals have been able to speak in Oz as well as teach in school but lately they are facing discrimination. They are losing their ability to speak and eventually prevented from teaching. Elphaba wants to meet the Wizard because she hates the exploitation of animals in Oz and hopes he can change that. She brings Galinda (who at this point calls herself Glinda because one of the animal teachers call her by that and like Elphaba, supports the animals) along. But when they meet the Wizard, Elphaba finds he is a phony and has no powers. Worse off, she finds he is responsible for animal abuse in Oz. Elphaba rebels, wants no part in helping the Wizard, and escapes from the Wizard’s palace by placing a levitation spell on a  broom and flies off. Morrible, realizing Elphaba will not join the Wizard and can expose him as the fraud he is, immediately casts Elphaba as the Wicked Witch of the West and a danger to the land of Oz. Yet, Morrible and the Wizard need someone to represent a force of “good” in Oz.

This is where the second movie begins. Glinda is now cast as the Good Witch. Given her innate talent for being liked, Glinda seems to easily fit the bill. However, there’s one problem: Glinda has no magical talents. Morrible gives her a wand and a floating bubble to make Oz believe she does.

In the second movie, we are also given some of Glinda’s backstory. (In the films, both Elphaba and Glinda are given backstory while there is none in the play.) We learn that she has wanted magical powers since she was a child.

Now that Morrible has given her the role of the Good Witch, Glinda finally has something she always wanted. Yet, it comes with a price. She must denounce her friend Elphaba as the Wicked Witch of the West and promise to save Oz from her. Also, deep down, she knows she really doesn’t have any magical powers.

Torn between her desire for this new role and the expectation for her to oust her friend, Glinda believes she can mend things between Elphaba, and the Wizard and Morrible. The first hour of the movie shows her trying to do this. When she realizes it isn’t possible, she must choose a side. She must decide whether she wants to continue to play the part of Glinda the Good Witch or be a good friend to Elphaba. As she struggles with her decision, Glinda herself realizes there is more to life than popularity.

As the second movie proceeds, this is where the plot of The Wizard of Oz comes in. We learn how Dorothy and her other companions fit into the second Wicked film. Of course, as anyone who has seen The Wizard of Oz, this is where the reputation of the Wicked Witch of the West takes a turn for the worse. People in Oz are angry and want to tear down the Wicked Witch. Glinda realizes she cannot only play the part of the Good Witch but must actually use her role to ease tension in Oz.

Ariana Grande received an Oscar nomination for Glinda in the first film. However, as discussed, there are more complexities to her in the second film. If anyone just thought of Grande as a talented singer, this film shows she’s a talented actress as well. Glinda goes through a lot of emotions and changes in this second film, and Grande is able to handle whatever the script asks of her character.

This film proves there’s a good chance Grande may have the biggest acting career out of all the contemporary singers. None of the other current celebrity singers have had to take on a role as challenging as Glinda. Also, in the future, Grande may be given a character that is completely different from Glinda, and given what we’ve seen in the Wicked films, we have faith she can achieve it.