Wicked director says part two has increased in relevance because of ‘where we are in society right now’

Wicked director Jon M Chu has said the second part of the film, which is due to be released next year, is “eight times more relevant” because of where we are “in society right now.”

The first part of the movie musical, which stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as witches Elphaba and Glinda, arrived at cinemas this weekend and is being predicted to achieve one of the biggest box office openings of the year.

The second part of the film, based on the hit Broadway prequel to The Wizard of Oz, is set to be released in a year’s time on November 21, 2025.

Speaking to Variety, Chu was asked how the filmmakers intend to keep the film’s momentum going until next year.

“I don’t know,” Chu replied, “But ‘Part Two,’ I will say because I’ve cut ‘Part Two’ together, is a doozy.

“[You’re] getting the meat. I did not know the context of where we’d be in society right now. It becomes eight times more relevant than before when you’re talking about truth and consequences of making the right or wrong choices. It’s intense.”

While Wicked is proving a hit at the box office, it has received mixed reviews from critics. In a three-star review for The Independent, film critic Clarisse Loughrey argued that the film is “fun and well acted” but “looks terrible.”

“Wicked looks like every other film now. That’s its problem,” writes Loughrey. “It may be the screen adaptation of the stage musical – itself based on a 1995 novel – but, within moments, it also tethers itself directly to the classic 1939 musical The Wizard of Oz.

“And while that film’s Emerald City and Land of Oz have been cemented in the public imagination as brilliant-hued dream worlds, and the most famous demonstration of the Technicolor process, Wicked is shot and lit like we’re being sold an Airbnb in Mykonos.

“Characters are aggressively backlit, so that the audience can feel what it’s like to watch events unfold while also staring directly into the sun. There are ferocious performances here, and it’s clear that hours upon hours of intricate craftwork have taken place on the film’s sets, but director Jon M Chu (of In the Heights and Crazy Rich Asians fame) treats his Oz as if it were as mundane as a city block.

“And if there were ever a film that demanded Hollywood finally put to rest its obsession with flat, stark realism and return to colourful expressionism, it would surely be Wicked. In theory, it’s pure spectacle – its emotional resonance powered almost entirely by the lungs of lead Cynthia Erivo, as she nails those notorious high notes on ‘Defying Gravity’.”