Wicked and Wicked: For Good were filmed simultaneously, and the cast and crew have shared some of their strategies for keeping the story and arcs straight when they were jumping between scenes and settings each day. Starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, the two movies are a joint adaptation of the Broadway musical, which itself has a shorter runtime than the first movie.
There was plenty of debate surrounding the Wicked production about whether splitting it into two parts was the right move, which has also been discussed again by critics in the wake of Wicked: For Good‘s weaker reviews. However, Chu and screenwriters Winnie Holzman (who also wrote the script for the Broadway show) again defended the choice in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“We began to realize that we could give a lot more detail and nuance and intimacy to what Glinda was going through, and that everything we would add to Glinda would enhance Elphaba’s arc and journey as well,” says Holzman. The two movies, however, were one huge production, which could be confusing to the actors having to embody different points in their characters’ arcs.
The filmmakers were also challenged with keeping the story and its evolving tone straight. “It was a mind f–k, as they say,” says Chu. Chu created a “war room” for Wicked with numerous drawings and models to keep track of everything. They also had specific color choices and intended themes to “anchor” each scene, which is visible in the completed movies.
“Some of the intentions for the first movie were desire and choice and yearning and longing and dreams, and the second movie was sacrifice and surrender and consequence,” says cinematographer Alice Brooks. Wicked is a much brighter movie, as Elphaba and Glinda consider what they want out of life while at school, while Wicked: For Good shows them navigating the truth of their dreams.
Glinda and Elphaba smiling in the mirror in Wicked
Grande and Erivo both had “giant, annotated [scripts]” to aid them in performing their storylines cohesively, while Erivo also adopted the clever strategy of having different perfumes for where Elphaba was at in her arc. This, in particular, seems like a good way to leverage a sensory trigger to take Elphaba from curious student to powerful witch, beyond relying on written notes.
Despite Wicked: For Good‘s Rotten Tomatoes score seeing a significant drop from the first movie’s debut, nearly everyone agrees that Erivo and Grande still give powerhouse performances, signaling that they nailed the progression of Elphaba and Glinda’s lives. Wicked: For Good is also a visual feast like its predecessor, but with its own distinctive tone, illustrating the results of this meticulous planning.
