Jon M. Chu breaks down how the sequel got darker after realizing the audience was not only willing but eager to watch “the characters grow.”

How Wicked: For Good changed after first movie’s success: ‘We don’t need any of that s---,’ director says

Jon M. Chu breaks down how the sequel got darker after realizing the audience was not only willing but eager to watch "the characters grow."

By Patrick Gomez

Patrick Gomez is an Executive Editor at . Formerly at People magazine and The A.V. Club, the Critics Choice and Television Critics Association member has appeared on 'Today,' 'Extra!,' 'Access Hollywood,' 'E! News,' 'CNN,' and 'Nightline,' and can be seen frequently on 'Good Morning America.' Follow the Texas Native at @PatrickGomezLA wherever your media is social for all things 'For All Mankind' 'Top Chef,' and puppy related.

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on November 21, 2025 5:18 p.m. ET

Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda in 'Wicked: For Good'. Credit:

Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

Launching a high-profile (and expensive) franchise is a daunting task. What if no one likes it? What if it flops? The *Wicked* team had to be asking themselves those questions ahead of the film's release last November.

Luckily for Universal, those concerns were swiftly alleviated as audiences flocked to theaters, memorized the choreography, and made pink and green their entire wardrobe. But how did that blockbuster success impact director Jon M. Chu as he dove into editing the sequel *Wicked: For Good*? (Both films were shot at the same time, with the director even doing an initial edit of the second movie at the same time as the first.)

"It changed all the setup stuff that we had put in there to get people back in," Chu tells ** of originally crafting an explicit recap of events from the first movie in case *For Good* viewers forgot or hadn't seen Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) defy gravity. "It was very clear that wasn't necessary."

In fact, just weeks ago, EW saw a cut of the film's first few minutes that spoonfed the audience far more than the final version hitting theaters this weekend. But Chu says fan passion for*Wicked* also had a more fundamental impact on the sequel.

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"It also became clear that I didn't have to convince anyone of anything. They believed our world, they believed in Elphaba," he says. "It showed us that they were willing to follow and supported this switch of Elphaba [stepping into the role of 'the Wicked Witch']. Independence feels like rejection before feeling like growth, and I think we could lean into that."

Chu continues, "When initially planning these two movies, you don't know how people are going to take it. You're like, 'Well, they're going to want the fun and the dance in movie two, so we got to make sure it is light and bubbly. But [*For Good*] is not a light and bubbly story. Things have shattered."

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Not that shifting to a darker tone happened overnight.

"You're planning and plotting like, 'Okay, we're going to keep some of [the fun and dancing].' 'You got to do this and that.' But as soon as that first movie came out, we realized, 'We don't need any of that s---.'" The audience is in and they want the characters to grow. It gave me a lot of freedom, actually, because now I could sit in that silence. Now I know I don't have to sugarcoat some of those moments."

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Movies”