New trailer for Wicked sequel takes fans back to Oz

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, pictured in 2024, will return as Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked: For Good

The first full-length trailer for Wicked's forthcoming sequel has been released, offering fans a glimpse of how the Wizard of Oz spin-off will conclude.

Wicked: For Good will see Cynthia Erivo return as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, alongside Ariana Grande as Glinda the Good Witch of the North.

The sequel picks up where the first film left off and covers the years after Elphaba and Glinda's decision to part ways.

Elphaba is now an enemy of the state of Oz, while Glinda has become a public figure controlled by the Wizard.

The new trailer shows Glinda's bedroom window cracking. She goes outside to her balcony to search for Elphaba, who then appears next to her from the shadows.

It also teases the arrival of Dorothy - seen walking down the yellow brick road with her friends - suggesting the character might have a bigger role in the films than in the musical. But the actress who plays her has not yet been revealed.

At another point in the trailer, Elphaba is seen writing the phrase "Our wizard lies" in the clouds above Oz using her broom stick. But her unpopularity is emphasised in one scene showing an angry mob carrying torches through the streets as they look for her.

Other highlights include Elphaba receiving a handwritten note from Glinda reading: "I hope you get what your heart desires."

The trailer ends with Elphaba saying she's "off to see the Wizard" before flying on a broom into the distance with her winged monkeys.

Director Jon M Chu told Vanity Fair: "Our heart was broken when Glinda can't make the choice that we want her to so badly at the end of movie one, and it feels empowering for Elphaba to fly away from society.

"In movie two, we get to see the consequences of those choices. The temperature is up."

The films have been adapted from the hugely successful Broadway and West End musical, which itself was based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel.

However, the stage musical was split into two films for its big-screen adaptation, with the second due to be released on 21 November.

The two movies were shot simultaneously at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire between December 2022 and January 2024, with production interrupted mid-way through by the Hollywood actors' strike.

Wicked was the highest-grossing movie of 2024 in the UK, and scored 10 Oscar nominations - winning two for best costume and production design.

At two hours 40 minutes, the first film alone was almost as long as the entire length of the stage show.

Erivo and Grande's chemistry and real-life friendship prompted several viral interview moments during the first film's promotional run last year, and the pair jointly opened the Academy Awards in March with a Wicked medley.

But one challenge facing the sequel is that most of the best known songs from the musical, such as Defying Gravity, Popular and The Wizard And I, featured in the first film.

The forthcoming follow-up will feature two brand new songs, with Chu explaining: "They're great additions to this movie. They were necessary in this movie to help tell the story."

Two other Wicked staples - For Good and No Good Deed - will also appear in part two.

The sequel will see Grande and Erivo joined once again by co-stars Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard.

Grande's Glinda is seen in the trailer wearing a wedding dress, suggesting she may be about to marry Bailey's Fiyero, who - echoing the lyrics to the title track For Good - promises he has "changed".

Meanwhile, Goldblum's wizard is seen declaring to Dorothy, the tin man, scarecrow and lion: "Get me the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West."

One of the teaser's most emotional moments comes when Elphaba is seen telling Glinda: "You're the only friend I've ever had."

"And I've had so many friends," laughs a characteristically self-assured Glinda. "But only one that mattered."