There’s actually a great reason why the Wicked movie is being split into two parts

Wicked truly made all of our hearts defy gravity this week, with astounding performances from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. At a whopping two hours and 41 minutes, the film packs in a million musical numbers, outfit slays and character arcs. Yet, it’s still only part one of the iconic musical adaptation. So, why has Wicked been split into two parts? The answer actually comes in two parts itself. There are two iconic reasons why Wicked just couldn’t be one singular film, and the second is all to do with Cynthia Erivo.

Wicked director Jon Chu revealed the main reason why Wicked had to be a two-part job on Twitter back in 2022.

Special #Wicked Movie Announcement… ✌🏼🎬🧹🌸💚sent from my OzPhone: pic.twitter.com/4qPpvVD4rR

— Jon M. Chu (@jonmchu) April 26, 2022

He explained the entire premise behind the decision: “Here’s what happened: As we prepared this production over the last year, it became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to wrestle the story of Wicked into a single film without doing some real damage to it. As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions began to feel like fatal compromises to the source material that has entertained us all for so many years.”

He added, “so we decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one Wicked movie but TWO!!!! With more space, we can tell the story of Wicked as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys of these beloved characters.”

The second reason Wicked had to be split into two parts came from the composer Stephen Schwartz, who explained that Defying Gravity could just not be topped. I completely get that one.

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“We found it very difficult to get past Defying Gravity without a break,” he said. “That song is written specifically to bring a curtain down, and whatever scene follows it without a break just seemed hugely anti-climactic. So, for these two reasons, plus the excitement of doing something that’s never been done before with a musical, we have decided to do two movies.” So what you’re basically saying is Cynthia Erivo slayed so hard she couldn’t possibly be topped by anything else. I understand.

Hold on to your witch hats, because Wicked part two is out on 21st November 2025. I waited longer for season three of Bridgerton to be honest, so can’t complain here.