Wicked director defends sequel title change: “Who wants a movie called Wicked: Part Two?”

The highly anticipated Wicked sequel received a new title last month — Wicked: For Good. Although fans had mixed reactions about the new title, director Jon M. Chu was quick to defend it, saying it was always the plan.

“Who wants a movie called ‘Wicked: Part Two’?” Chu told Variety. “On the script, it always said, ‘For Good,’ and so it was just a point of like, ‘Do we really want to call this “Part Two”?’ And nobody wants that.” The director added that they didn’t consider any other titles. “I mean, that’s the destination. ‘For Good,’ we know, is like, ‘Where are we going with this movie? Let’s finish this thing,’” Chu explained.

The new title takes inspiration from one of the musical’s most well-known songs, a duet between Elphaba and Glinda performed near the end of the musical as a farewell.

Jonathan Bailey, who plays Fiyero in the film, recently teased that the sequel will be a more complicated tale. “I think we understand the world and how it works [now],” Bailey said. “I’m really excited for the tonal shift. The world gets heavier and more complicated and there’s just that pumping sense of hope and joy and resilience and all the things that we love about Elphaba’s journey that I can’t wait for.“

Wicked is still playing in theaters, and despite not being much of a Broadway musical fan, our own Chris Bumbray found a lot to like. “While I’ll admit that there were a handful of moments where I felt I was missing some kind of in-joke for fans of the play, overall, I had a pretty good time with Jon M. Chu’s Wicked – Part I,” Bumbray wrote. “Certainly, it’s one of the better modern versions of The Wizard of Oz, far more entertaining than Sam Raimi’s largely forgotten Oz: The Great and Powerful. Chu seems to have a knack for movie musicals, and with Universal clearly pumping a pretty penny into it, it feels like the kind of big, broad fantasy epic that should be able to crossover beyond its core audience of Broadway enthusiasts.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.

Wicked: For Good will hit theaters on November 21, 2025.