The movie's poster.
Wicked (also known as Wicked: Part I) is a fantasy musical movie based on the first act of the Broadway musical of the same name which serves as a prequel to the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, telling the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West (Who is given the name Elphaba, named after Oz series author L. Frank Baum). The movie was released on November 22, 2024, to critical acclaim. A sequel based on the second act of the musical titled Wicked: For Good is scheduled for release on November 21, 2025.
Plot[]
The movie opens with the hat of the Wicked Witch of the West, who was seemingly killed after being splashed with water by a girl named Dorothy Gale. Back in Munchkinland, the munchkins are celebrating the witch's death. Glinda the Good Witch of the North attends the ceremony. One munchkin asks Glinda if it was true that she knew her. Glinda then tells the story of when she and the Wicked Witch were once best friends.
Years prior, Glinda was known as Galinda, and she attends a school known as Shiz University. Galinda hopes to learn sorcery from Madame Muriel Morrible. Govenor Thropp arrives to enroll his daughter Nessarose (Who later grows up to be the Wicked Witch of the East). He insists that his other daughter Elphaba looks after her, however he hates Elphaba because he blames her for his wife's death after consuming milk flowers, so Nessarose isn't born with green skin as well. Elphaba is mocked by the others for her green skin and has been all her life. When Elphaba unknowingly uses her powers, Madame Morrible becomes interested in her and wants to teach Elphaba sorcery. Galinda is assigned to be Elphaba's roommate. The two don't get along at first.
Elphaba and Galinda attend history class together where their teacher is a talking goat named Dr. Dillamond, who often mispronounces Galinda's name as "Glinda". Unfortunately, Dr. Dillamond faces discrimination for being a talking animal and even finds a hurtful message on his chalkboard. Later that night, Elphaba follows Dr. Dillamond to his home in the forest, where he discusses that animals in the land of Oz are losing their ability to speak. Elphaba says the Wizard of Oz must find out so he can help the animals.
The next day, a transfer student named Fiyero arrives, and Galinda falls for him. A munchkin boy named Boq likes Galinda, however, she convinces Boq to go to the Ozdust ballroom with Nessarose, while Galinda asks Fiyero to go with her. While getting ready, Galinda finds a witch hat given to her by her grandma. She gives the hat to Elphaba and asks her to come to the ballroom. At the party. Madame Morrible tells Galinda that she'll teach her sorcery due to Elphaba asking her to do so or she'll quit the class. This makes Galinda begin to like Elphaba. When Elphaba arrives wearing the witch hat, the other students laugh at her, however Galinda decides to dance with Elphaba, hug her, and the two become best friends. This causes the other students to be nice to Elphaba.
While in Dr. Dillamond's class, he is taken away and a new teacher arrives with a caged lion cub (Who will later grow up to be the Cowardly Lion). Elphaba uses the poppy flowers she intended to give Dr. Dillamond as a gift to put everyone to sleep. This magic spell doesn't affect Fiyero and he and Elphaba take the lion cub deep in the forest where it will be safe. The two start developing feelings for each other but neither of them will admit it.
The following day, Elphaba receives an invitation to see the Wizard of Oz in the Emerald City. A train arrives to pick up Elphaba. Before Elphaba leaves, Galinda says in honor of Dr. Dillamond, she will now be referred to as Glinda. Elphaba gets on the train and the other students wish her luck, however, she wants Glinda to come with her, so she hops on board the train as well.
When Elphaba and Glinda arrive at the Emerald City, the people greet them. The two then go see the Wizard, who appears as a scary face with a deep voice. This is revealed to be an animatronic and the real wizard is just a normal man. The Wizard is happy to meet Elphaba and tells them that he is in the middle of making roads that go to the Emerald City but can't decide the color. Both Elphaba and Glinda agree on it being yellow. Elphaba asks the Wizard to help the animals, and he agrees. Madame Morrible is there as well, and a monkey servant shows them a magic book called the Grimmerie. Elphaba reads a spell from the book and the spell causes all the monkey servants to grow wings.
After hearing that The Wizard and Morrible want to use the flying monkeys as spies, Elphaba realizes that they are the ones behind the oppression of animals and that they want to use Elphaba. After learning this and that the Wizard has no real power, she runs away from them and takes the spell book with her. The guards are sent to capture Elphaba and Madame Morrible tells everyone that Elphaba is an evil Wicked Witch. Later, Nessarose is heartbroken from this lie and Govenor Thropp dies of a heart attack. Glinda follows Elphaba and tries to tell her not to leave. Elphaba then uses the spell book to make a broomstick fly. While Glinda doesn't join her, she still supports her friend. Before the guards can get to her, Elphaba flies away on the broomstick going west. A message saying To Be Continued then appears on screen.
Cast[]
- Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp
- Karis Musongole as young Elphaba
- Ariana Grande as Galinda "Glinda" Upland
- Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar
- Ethan Slater as Boq Woodsman
- Bowen Yang as Pfannee
- Peter Dinklage as the voice of Dr. Dillamond
- Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible
- Jeff Goldblum as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
- Marissa Bode as Nessarose
See also[]