Written by: Megan Callahan: Spectator Staff Writer 

“Wicked” has been a household name in the Broadway industry for 22 years now and has been named the fourth of the longest-running shows in Broadway theatre History. 

So, when the director, Jon M. Chu, decided to take this Broadway musical to the big screen, people were both very excited yet skeptical to see if this project would be taken in the right direction. 

After seeing the first “Wicked” movie, finding out how Chu took his time casting each role and filming each scene to the upmost importance, everyone had high expectations for the “Wicked for Good” sequel. 

After seeing the “Wicked for Good” film, it is obvious that the cast, the crew, and everyone involved in the film did just as beautiful a job filming the sequel and treating it with as much respect it deserves as they did for the first film. 

The new characters introduced in the first film developed in very surprising ways with several twists and turns. These changes throughout the storyline helped to separate itself from the Broadway show. 

Not only does the sequel continue from where we left off in the first movie, but it also gives a little bit of a backstory to parts of the story of the famous movie that started it all, “The Wizard of Oz.” The movie does a fantastic job giving scenes context that explains several things that “The Wizard of Oz” doesn’t explain. 

“Wicked for Good” also does a phenomenal job of including little details from “The Wizard of Oz” book written by Lyman Frank Baum in 1900. For example, in “The Wizard of Oz” book, the character Dorothy originally wore silver slippers, and the ruby red slippers weren’t incorporated until the book became a film in 1939.  

Then in the “Wicked for Good” film, the silver slippers from the book came back to the film. The new movie picked up several little details like that. Not only that, but they also did a beautiful job with the sets, and transitioning from one scene to the next.  

But what made this sequel truly amazing was the songs. They did include a lot of the same songs from Act II of the Broadway musical, but they added a few new songs that made this sequel help the audience understand what the characters are going through coming back from where we left off in the last movie. 

The sequel holds in store several twists and turns that no one will see coming. Not only that, but it teaches the audience to show their true colors and start looking at things in another light. 

Usually, sequels are not as good as the original film, but in this particular film, that is not the case. The reason is the sequel has the same cast and crew as the original “Wicked” movie. 

Usually if a movie does well and decides to do a sequel, but it doesn’t have the same director, writers, producers or cast, then it won’t have the same outcome as the original. However, that is not the case when it comes to the movie “Wicked for Good.” 

It ties everything together so well and answers any questions you might have had about the original “Wicked” film. You should definitely go and see it. It is no question that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are both at the top of their games. 

Everything from the sets, the cast, the production, to the storyline leading up to several twists and turns throughout the film was what made this film truly phenomenal.  

“Wicked for Good” is out now at the Valdosta Cinemas. If you are a fan of musicals, or are just looking for a good movie, it is a movie you truly don’t want to miss.