What you should know before watching Wicked

So you will see Evilthe great film musical based on second highest grossing Broadway musical of all timebased on Gregory Maguire’s 2000 novel Evilbased on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. (And only partially influenced by the 1939 film The Wizard of Ozwhich, unlike Baum’s books, are not in the public domain.) That’s a pretty complicated lineage for anything that hits the screen, and you might have some questions. Or maybe you think you don’t have questions because you don’t quite know what you’re getting into here – and you’re not alone, based on some of the responses people have had after seeing the film. We can help.

How long is Wicked and does it have a post credit scene?

Let’s get this out of the way first: It’s two hours and 40 minutes long. And no, there is no post-credit scene, mid-credit scene, dancing animated characters during the credits – nothing fun like that. Once the big intermission number is played, you’re free to go and ponder the cliffhanger you just experienced.

Wait, what do you mean ‘half game number’?

You don’t become the second-highest-grossing Broadway musical in history without show-stopping song-and-dance routines. Evil is full of song-and-dance numbers written by legendary Broadway lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz. It is undoubtedly not much of a film without the musical numbers, which convey most of the important information and all the important emotions and provide all the spectacular.

But movie studios don’t like selling movie musicals to the masses. Example: When I saw 2024 Wild girls movie, some attendees at my theater were surprised and annoyed to learn that it was a musical because the trailers largely hid the fact that it was centered around song and dance. The same thing happened with the 2023s The color Purple and Wonka — it’s become pretty standard for movie-musical marketing hiding the fact that the film has music. Most of the Evil‘s trailers followed suit, hiding the fact that it was a musical right up until a month before its release.

Why are so many musical movies being made if marketers don’t think movie musicals are popular or trendy?

Keep in mind that marketers aren’t the same people greenlighting or making these movies—they’re just coming after the fact and figuring out how to sell what someone else made. But that said, my best guess is that studios remain endlessly dependent on well-known, well-known and popular IP — and a show that has grossed more than $1.6 billion on Broadway is considered to have a built-in audience. But still. All that explains “number”, but we haven’t reached “half-play” or “cliffhanger” yet.

Is Wicked a complete movie?

No! It is the first half of the Broadway show – the first of two acts. The title in the original announcement was Evil. The title on the screen is Evil – part 1. In marketing, however, it is now billed as Wicked: Part I. Maybe this is just confusing to fact checkers and copy editors, but let me tell you, we don’t love it. Anyway, the movie ends right at the intermission with the song “Defying Gravity”, just when things get really serious.

When is Wicked: Part II coming out?

November 21, 2025 – basically a year away Wicked: Part I‘s original release. The official title was originally Wicked Part 2: For Goodbut judging by current marketing materials, it seems that now it just is Wicked: Part II.

Are you waiting until people are in the theater to get the “Part I” title on them – doesn’t that feel like another deliberate fakeout?

So Part I is 160 minutes long… How long is Wicked the Broadway show?

It’s 165 minutes, including both acts and a 15-minute intermission. Crazy, right?

What fills these movies up to make them twice the length of the Broadway show?

Wicked: Part I is longer because many more non-musical narrative scenes have been added, drawing from the Gregory Maguire book from which the Broadway musical is adapted. First, “Defying Gravity” itself feels weirdly hyper-extended due to the action scenes and dialogue that interrupts the song between verses. The film also spends more time with its eventual evil witch, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), in childhood and more time on scenes of her rivalry and friendship with classmate and roommate Galinda (Ariana Grande).

Wicked: Part II will be longer because it will add two new songs written by Schwartz, according to the composer himself. Given the second act’s large time jump through Elphaba’s career as a witch, which the stage musical skips over, it would also not be surprising if Part II follows Part Ileads and fills in some of the gaps with more character work.

Finally it is possible Part II will repeat some of Part I‘s songs (at least more than the original Broadway musical already does) to extend its length and/or let it dwell a little more on the iconic moments and songs from Act I of the show. That seems relatively unlikely, since director John M. Chu considers himself a big fan of the Broadway musical — but it might be a necessary practicality for two halves of a story told a year apart.

Is the evil book good? Should I read it?

Maguire has made a career out of retelling fairy tales as elaborate literary novels, but he always returns to the Wicked series, which is not just Elphaba’s story: Later novels in the series center on Elphaba’s son and grandson, with a page book, A lion among menspending more time with the Cowardly Lion. They’re worth a read if you like dense, thought-provoking literary fantasy – the first book in the series, fully titled as Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the Westis a particularly rich character study that is much more narratively complicated than the stage musical or the film.

What about Wicked’s original Broadway stars? Are Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth in the movie Wicked?

Are you sure you want to know? This is where we cross the line into “Some people want to know going in and some don’t.”

Yep, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth have a cute musical cameo in the middle of “One Short Day” when Elphaba and Galinda (at that point in the story, just “Glinda”) are speeding in the Emerald City and stop to see a stage show called Wizomaniawhich offers a certain exhibition about the Wizard of Oz and the magical book Grimmerien, which is of course becoming important. Menzel and Chenoweth take the stage together in elaborate gowns to sing about the town’s history—and elbow each other a bit in mock diva rivalry as they try to one-up each other.

Ariana Grande is a huge star, but where do I know Cynthia Erivo from?

Isn’t she spectacular? You can see her starring in the 2019 film Harriet Tubman Harriet — and mostly not singing, though she did write and perform the soundtrack song “Stand Up,” which earned her an Oscar nomination.

She also starred in HBO’s Stephen King miniseries The outsider as Holly Gibney, the neurodivergent scout turned one of King’s favorite recurring characters over the past two decades. She sings as the Blue Fairy in Disney’s unloved live-action Pinocchioand stars as Aretha Franklin in season 3 of Brilliantthe anthology show, where each season profiles a different creator.

But for our money, the best place to see her on film if Evil gave you Cynthia Erivo the itch is there Bad times at the El Royale2018 neo-noir directed by The cabin in the forestDrew Goddard. She does it all Bad times: sings, stars, sweats it out in a tense situation and hangs out with a shirtless Chris Hemsworth. If Evil‘s cliffhanger leaves you a little unsatisfied, and you don’t just want to see the Broadway show or read Maguire’s book, Bad times is your best next step.