Final “Wicked: For Good” Trailer Brings Dorothy to Oz

When we spoke with Wicked and Wicked: For Good co-writer Dana Fox, they were just at the very end of the years-long process of bringing the colossal Broadway smash hit to its cinematic conclusion. Fox told us that she’d recently watched both the films, which were shot back-to-back, back-to-back herself, and had this to say, “By the end of the day, I was like a shell of a person who had to be swept off the floor – makeup all over, mascara, sweating, weeping, joyful, happy, singing. It was all of the emotions.”

Now, Universal has released the final trailer for Wicked: For Good, which opens with Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) instructing Glinda (Ariana Grande) that “it’s more important than ever: to lift everyone’s spirits, as only you can.” She introduces Glinda to a fantastic piece of technology, her special bubble, which is activated by a button on the floor that helpfully reads “tap to bubble.” When Glinda says, “I’m obsessulated,” (a classic Glinda-ism), and Madame Morrible is pleased. Glinda is, in her eyes, the perfect pitch woman to keep those with real power in control of Oz. To make the point about Glinda’s role in all this crystal—or bubble—clear, Madame Morrible adds, “the wand really sells it.”

When we spoke to director Jon M. Chu, he said that while it’s Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) whose courage becomes contagious and sparks the challenge to finally overthrow the Wizard’s (Jeff Goldblum) dominion over Oz, Glinda’s own courage will be highlighted in “For Good.“ It was a courage, Chu told us, that Grande had in pursuing the role in the first place. “When you see Ariana Grande going through her life and trying to find her escape from her own life and finding her authentic self, and you see that in her performance as Glinda, then you can see that it also takes courage for someone with privilege to live in their bubble, to pop their privilege, to come down and see what’s actually happening.”

Glinda the Good, as she’s called, becomes a public figure in For Good, and in that role, she’s supposed to paint Elphaba as, well, wicked. The trailer offers a wand battle between the two old college friends, as well as a glimpse of a house flying through the sky. Yup, enter Dorothy, who, along with her four new friends, is instructed by the Wizard to bring him the Wicked Witch’s wand, so he knows that she’s dead. For Good is set both before and after Dorothy’s arrival in Oz, and the trailer gives us a glimpse of the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow.

Wicked: For Good will enchant theaters on November 21. Check out the final trailer here:

Featured image: Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in WICKED FOR GOOD, directed by Jon M. Chu.