‘Wicked: For Good’ Rotten Tomatoes Score Revealed – Can It Live Up to the Original?

The sequel to Wicked, titled Wicked: For Good, has arrived with mixed but generally positive reviews. Directed by Jon M. Chu and written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, the film adapts the second act of the original stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman.

It continues the story of Elphaba and Glinda as they take on their identities as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good, set in the Land of Oz before and during the events of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum return from the first film, with Colman Domingo joining the cast.

The film debuted to a 72% score on Rotten Tomatoes, which later climbed to 74% based on 88 reviews. The audience response has been much stronger, with a 97% approval rating. This is still lower than the first movie.

Critics generally praised the sequel for staying true to the musical’s story, developing the characters, and delivering strong performances, particularly from Erivo and Grande. Many also noted that the movie successfully continues the narrative from the first film and brings the story to a satisfying conclusion.

Covers the second act of the stage musical Wicked, but it feels like a true sequel to the first film released last year. Like The Empire Strikes Back or Back to the Future Part II, the new movie develops and complicates the story’s lore and characters.

Fred Topel

It wraps things up, but there’s no feeling of cohesion – something that was never going to be in Chu’s hands, and for what he has, he excels at.

Paul Klein

With Wicked: For Good, Chu reaffirms himself as a master of musicals – this spectacular sequel brings the tale to a fitting end of a cinematic triumph, with Erivo and Grande-Butera surely securing nominations in the upcoming awards season.

Katie Smith-Wong

[Wicked: For Good] is somewhat of a mixed bag, a second act that…due to the barebones narrative of the adaptive source material lacks the soaring exhilaration felt leaving the theater humming “Defying Gravity.”

Derrick Murray

While the first film was more Hollywood, this second film is more Broadway. Fans of the original musical should be delighted, but newcomers to Wicked might be slightly let down. Still, movie magic with powerful messages and performances.

Grace Randolph

However, some reviewers were less impressed. They pointed out that the story can feel uneven and that the film’s visual style is sometimes overwhelming. Others felt the sequel could have been combined with the first film into a single epic, and that newcomers to Wicked might not connect as strongly with the Broadway-style approach.

Whatever magic that flying broom had to propel itself into the air in ‘Part One’ hits only severe turbulence throughout ‘For Good’ before crashing onto a yellow-brick tarmac.

Rendy Jones

If you bought the first film’s brash visual aesthetic – the result of a giant toddler vomiting candyfloss all over Walt Disney World – then you will be relieved to discover it has got no less stomach-unsettling.

Donald Clarke

It’s difficult to watch “For Good” and not think that all of this really should’ve been contained to a single epic film.

Brian Orndorf

Between its fealty to past versions of the story, and its unwillingness to break free from even the most rigid emotional and formal modes, the sequel refuses to even attempt to defy gravity, making it sink like a stone.

Siddhant Adlakha

The follow-up to director Jon M. Chu’s massive 2024 hit is more of the same, only darker. The dark elements are written into the show’s second act, which even fans would agree is not as good as the first.

Odie Henderson

Wicked: For Good has already premiered internationally, including in São Paulo, Paris, London, Singapore, and New York City. The film will be released in theaters across the United States by Universal Pictures on November 21.