How many years later is Wicked: For Good set? The confusifying timeline, explained

We had to wait a whole excruciating year after the first Wicked film for the finale in Wicked: For Good. Well, the characters in Wicked had to take place even longer. The opening scene of Wicked: For Good takes place after a sudden time skip. The film hops backwards and forwards with flashbacks. If you’re still confusified, here is the complete timeline of Wicked and Wicked: For Good, spelled out in detail.

Wicked: For Good starts five years after the last film

The characters in neither the Wicked: For Good film or the musical specify exactly how much time passes between Elphaba belting out Defying Gravity, then Glinda announcing she’s engaged to Fiyero. This might be because people measure time differently in the fantasy world of Oz to how we do on earth. For instance, Glinda and co use the term “clock tick” instead of “second”, and the clocks have 13 hours on.

Thankfully, there are more specific dates in the 1995 book the show is based on – Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch. Five years passes between Elphaba going into hiding, then encountering Fiyero again.

Elphaba faffs in the forest for five years
(Credit: Universal Pictures)

The second film has even more flashbacks

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We get to see Glinda as a child. In the Wicked books, Glinda is specified as being 17 when she enrolls at Shiz University. (Although, she’s usually portrayed by an actor in her early or mid 20s on stage.) The actor who plays mini Ariana Grande in the film – Scarlett Spears – is eight. So, the flashbacks in Wicked: For Good are from roughly a decade before the first Wicked film.

All the scenes of Glinda, Elphaba, Fiyero, Nessarose and Boq frolicking around in the poppies are either flashbacks to a specific moment from Shiz University which we never saw in Wicked, or they’re just a dreamy fantasy of when everyone was friends.

This doesn’t really take place at any specific time. It’s just vibes
(Credit: Universal Pictures)

Yes, the finale of Wicked: For Good catches up with the start of Wicked

You might have forgotten this about the timeline before Wicked: For Good hit cinemas. But the vast majority of Wicked and Wicked: For Good are just one giant flashback Glinda has while she’s speaking to the munchkins who are celebrating Elphaba’s (supposed) death. Once Glinda sends off the Wizard and imprisons Madam Morrible, the audience is up-to-date with her memories. We return to her conversation with the munchkins from the very start of the first Wicked film.

Finally, we’re all caught up
(Credit: Universal Pictures)

Glinda decides not to correct the record on what Elphaba was really like. She promises to reinstate animals’ rights, in the way that Elphaba instructed her. The very last scenes – in which Fiyero wanders off in the desert – are the only parts to happen after the first scene in Wicked.

Here’s a handy timeline of all the events in the Wicked and Wicked: For Good films:

1. Elphaba’s birth (from the start of Wicked)
2. Glinda’s birthday party that we see in Wicked: For Good
3. Elphaba uses magic against Nessarose’s bullies. This is the bit of her childhood we saw in a flashback in Wicked
4. About a decade later, Elphaba, Glinda and the gang study at Shiz University. These three years take up most of the first Wicked film
5. The absolute final shot of Wicked: For Good is either a flashback to this time, or a sort of vision
6. Elphaba sings Defying Gravity and goes rogue at the end of the first Wicked film
7. Five years later, the yellow brick road is finished. This is the start of Wicked: For Good
   

   This was still quicker than most roadworks in the UK
   (Credit: Universal Pictures)

8. The chaotic events of Wicked: For Good happen over 13 years in the book. In the musical and the film, everything seems to go down in the space of a few months
9. Glinda tells the munchkins the good news that Elphaba is dead. This is the very first scene of Wicked
10. Glinda finishes her speech to the munckins. We see this in the final ten minutes or so of Wicked: For Good
11. Glinda messes with the Grimmerie. Elphaba and Fiyero escape through the land before Oz

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