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Fellow Aussie musical theater enthusiasts and people watching this video because they needed something long to play in the background while they clean for the final time. It is good to see me, isn't it? No need to respond, especially if you were going to say no. And don't worry, I'm not dying, nor melting into a puddle beneath this stylish hat. This is, however, the final installment of this year's series Wicked Weekends and very possibly the last video I will ever make analyzing the Wicked movies. Unless of course they make more of them. Which as it happens, is exactly what we're here to talk about. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to those of you listening to this on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre, including Wicked the Musical, including its two part film adaptation, Wicked and Wicked for Good, the latter of which was released of course last month. And as well as sharing all of my thoughts about that film with two separate reviews, one with and one without spoilers, in the weeks that have followed, I have shared various thoughts about different aspects of it. We talked about differences from the stage production, we talked about Easter eggs and references and today we are going to take one final deep dive into the world of Wicked on screen as we talk about the possibility of filming further films, the possibility of Wicked sequels, spin offs, TV adaptations, other adjacent stories within the land of Oz, as well as the possibility of other films on the horizon getting green lit pun absolutely intended as a result of Wicked success. And it feels fitting after two years of talking about these films, reacting to trailers, trying to break down every little glimpse and nugget in our curiosity and anticipation of the films last year, the various weeks spent looking through every aspect of that first movie over Wicked Wednesday, this year's Wicked weekend series. It has been a thrill of buying time and nothing if not appropriate that all of that should end with a discussion about the impact of these films and the distinct possibility that there might be more movies within what is now the globally recognized Wicked brand. Both because creatively they discovered this rich and exciting, colorful, vibrant world that has resonated with audiences of many ages, which there may be reward in exploring further. And also financially that's totally moot and doesn't even matter because the film's made an awful lot of money and the powers that be would like to make more. So we're going to take a look at what has been said thus far publicly about the possibility of further Wicked films or spin offs. In addition to which, as always, I will share my own thoughts with you about whether or not this seems like a good idea and the Wicked spin off or prequel or sequel perhaps that I would actually be interested in seeing. Spoiler alert at this exact moment. It very much depends on who's writing it. As always though, I would love to hear what you think as well. Comment down below with all of your thoughts and feelings about the possibility of more Wicked stories on screen screen, as well as your best pitches for what a Wicked prequel or sequel should look like. And if you enjoy listening to mine, make sure to subscribe right here on YouTube or follow me on podcast platforms. This may be the last time we're talking about the Wicked movies here, but I will continue to talk about all things theatre as we head into 2026 and rest assured there will be plenty of theatre next year worth talking about and hopefully perhaps even another exciting movie musical. In any case, let's get this particular ball rolling because for the last time it here on social media, I am feeling Wicked movie. So this conversation is essentially arising from the realization, which has been extensively discussed online, that because these films have done very well, there will be an eagerness from all involved and from Universal to try and, you know, further milk this particular green cow. I was talking to someone about this the other day and I think I said milk the green horse instead of cow, which is just horrifying visual. And there's a general sensation that some further attempt to explore the world of Wicked on screen feels quite inevitable at this stage. But the closest thing to any kind of a substantial indication that that might be happening is a little quote from composer of the musical and subsequent film adaptations, Stephen Schwartz. Now, he was quoted as saying this last month around the press tour of Wicked for good, while that was hitting cinemas and in spite of the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical being completed with the release of this second film, he was asked whether he thought there would be more Ozzian stories in the future. And this is what he said. He said, winnie Holtzman and I, Winnie being the co writer of the screenplay and the book writer of the original stage musical alongside him. Winnie and I are doing some work right now on ideas that aren't a sequel to Wicked, because I think the Glinda and Elphaba story feels complete. And I would agree. But there are other aspects that could be explored. This in a quote which he gave to the Ankler. Gregory Maguire, the original Wicked novelist, has several books, for example. But there's another idea separate that Winnie and I are discussing, not a sequel, but an adjunct, which immediately is deeply fascinating. And it's encouraging to hear that he thinks the Elphaba and Glinda story is complete, because I would agree with that. I do, however, question the extent to which Wicked, as a franchise, though I'm reluctant even to use that word or a brand or an idea, could continue with him and Winnie writing a new Ozyon story and continue to command similar interest without Elphaba and Glinda involved, unless it was tethered to them in some kind of a meaningful way, like a child, perhaps not of the two of them, obviously, like the Grimory can do a lot of impressive things. I don't think that is necessarily among its pages. Oh, I'm gonna get Guelphy comments on this one. Again, love and respect to you all. Keep playing the long game. And I'm not even going to begin to conceive of what he is talking about here. It's interesting that he is saying, you know, that Gregory Maguire has writt several novels, but that they are working on something separate and distinct from that. What I'm more concerned by is this next paragraph where it says he went on to liken the Wicked world to that of Star wars, noting the successful standalone projects that have come from that franchise. And if he's talking about celebrated things like Andor and I guess the Mandalorian, then sure. But I feel like the overextension of Star wars has given way to as many mistakes within that franchise as it has celebrated new additions. I think Star wars at this point may in fact have become the bad name of franchise over expansion, as well as kind of the sprawling state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this time. And the Ozzie and cinematic universe is an interesting concept, one which can't entirely come together because of the inherent lack of complete cohesion between Wicked and the wizard of Oz, which is something a lot of people have talked about in their aspirations for what another Wicked movie might look like. Some people have said write an entire film, like if this was Glinda's perspective, write one from Elphaba's perspective, or do one where it's like the wizard of Oz story, but with Glinda and Elphaba, with Ariana and Cynthia, remake it with them. And I just think ultimately we need to accept the fact that Wicked is a reinterpretation of the wizard of Oz that doesn't entirely gel with Dorothy's story. I. E. Wicked is not canon to the wizard of Oz, and Wicked the movie is not even canon to Wicked, the stage musical, because they make different choices. Carrying on it says. He also highlighted the many wizard of Oz books written by L. Frank Baum that could be used for inspiration. At this point in development, it is unknown if the project would be produced for the stage or screen. Oh, that's a hell of a thought. I was just assuming this entire time we could only be talking about something existing on screen, especially given the very bleak financial landscape of Broadway right now. And his most recent attempt at a new musical, the Queen of Versailles, starring original Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth, which just recently announced it would close earlier than its already early closing date and failed to capitalize its, I think 22 and a half million dollar investment. Anyway, though he is open to spin offs, Schwartz has yet to see a compelling reason to make a proper sequel. As far as right now, he says no one has yet presented an idea that I've heard that would justify such a thing, which does suggest that ideas are being presented and people are going to Stephen Schwartz and saying like, what if we do this? What if we do this? All of this could make us a lot of money. Please Stephen, won't you just write Something. And the most obvious thing, I think, which is not necessarily to say that it would be a good idea, would be to adapt the subsequent Gregory Maguire novel, which I think is Son of a Witch, but once more with the Winnie Holtzman treatment in terms of adapting it tonally and the events of the plot to bring it more into the Wicked world. If you don't know the world of Wicked, the musical versus Gregory Maguire's novel, Wicked, the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the west, they are quite distinct tonally. The narrative is quite different in each of them. And for want of a more robust explanation of the adaptive creative process, Wicked as a musical, but feels like a somewhat Disney fied version of Gregory Maguire's kind of dark and twisted fanfiction, which sounded more disparaging than it was meant to. Without Gregory Maguire, we wouldn't have any of this Wicked conversation. We wouldn't have the films or the stage musical. And so beyond the curious comment that he made there about him and Winnie working on something tangible and specific, it does feel like a lot of that quote is just like, well, yeah, there's lots of stuff there, there's lots of odd stuff that we could do, but it seems like probably they won't. And for my part, I don't think that's necessarily the worst idea, especially because, and I alluded to this before, if we are going to have another film within the Wicked universe that tries to continue to emulate the style of Wicked, both in terms of its storytelling and in terms of its score and additional musical material, I controversially think that Winnie Holtzman should remain on board in order to write the script. I don't think Stephen Schwartz should continue to write the score. And that's perhaps a blasphemous thing for me to say, but we all heard the additional two songs created for Wicked for good. Not only do I think that they are far from the best material of his career, I also don't think that they really fit that well into the world of Wicked musically. And you could say, like, they were meant to sound more like a Cynthia kind of a song and an Ariana kind of a song, rather than sounding like the voices for which Wicked was originally written. But I also don't think from listening to shows like the Queen of Versailles that Stephen Schwartz has done particularly compelling work in the last 20 years. And yet, because Wicked had such a huge cultural impact within the theatre community, a lot of composers in the years following its release started to write scores that sounded an awful lot like Wicked, that felt Very inspired by Wicked, with shows like the Book of Mormon and films like Frozen being great examples of this. And so I think if there were to be more Wicked stories for which new music was need, Robert and Kristen Anderson Lopez are probably the composers that we would want to write that I think at this point they could write more stuff that sounds like Wicked than Stephen Schwartz could. But ultimately, I also think that a Wicked sequel is probably not something that we desperately need. And I think moving beyond the scope of the original source material in any kind of an adaptation is almost always a mistake. This, I think, is among the lessons learned by, like Game of Thrones when they started to accelerate beyond the pace at which the books were being released and they had to write their own, their own ending. And yet I feel compelled to try and come up with some kind of a good idea because I do think it's sort of inevitable that they're going to try and maintain Wicked's presence on screen as a brand, as a franchise, if only because it's doing very well, it's selling very well, it's making them an awful lot of proverbially green and pink money like Monopoly and Universal as a theme park location is only expanding around the world and opening these exciting new parks. And there are Elphaba and Glinda meet and greets. There are talk of Oz inspired lands in the theme parks. If that does come to fruition, they are only going to want to maintain the excitement of this and this brand identity by creating more stuff for Wicked on screen so that that hand being the films, can continue to feed that hand, which is the theme park, so that that hand can feed that hand again and everyone keeps making more and more money. And it goes without saying that absolutely none of this is necessarily the best thing, artistically speaking, for the brand and for the show. Perhaps since Wicked has resonated with a younger audience, the best thing might be to have a kind of a Tangled esque TV cartoon series. Perhaps Ariana and Cynthia could probably, within their busy and demanding schedules, even still find time to voice these characters. You could do something inoffensive like more stories from Elphaba and Glinda's years at Shears in that little chapter when they actually became friends before they headed off to the Emerald City. It seems like only about 2 minutes pass on screen, but they could find a way to like stretch that out a little bit, have them get up to fun, family friendly adventures like it's Bluey only greedy, I guess. Honestly, I feel like someone would make that Should I write this if I was sat around a big long table in a fancy office trying to make as much money as possible? I do think getting Winnie Holtzman to try and adapt a version of the Son of a Witch story that reconciles just like Wicked did with the wizard of Oz, that with the return to Oz L Frank Baum story, I believe, is another of his. Certainly there is a film of the same name. I don't know wizard of Oz, Lord all that well. That might be an exciting next move, at least from an audience perspective. But still, I do think that something is diminished with the loss of Elphaba and Glinda. It's around those iconic characters that the initial success of Wicked on stage was originally built, and the absolute last thing we need is any kind of a sequel happening on a stage. We all saw what happened with Love Never Dies. Nothing good can come of trying to extend Glinda and Elphaba's story on Broadway, and it runs the risk of also killing the original show. So let's not even touch that as an idea. That's also why I'm reluctant to implement any of the changes made for the film into the Broadway production. I am, though, very curious to hear about any other ideas that people might have. My friend Kate, I think, was talking about being curious for a Madame Morrible backstory film at some point, a Wicked prequel, which if you were to start writing that screenplay right now, could only be called something like Flip it Around. Wwicked Witch. John M. Chu, over the course of these two press tours, has also been asked about the possibility of more Wicked movies, and he's kind of flip flopped on this and said various different things, mostly just to appease the people asking the questions, I think. Although curiously he has mentioned another musical that he would like to bring to the screen, which I think brings us from a conversation about Wicked sequels, prequels, spin offs, whatever, to one about other films that we might see as a result of Wicked's success. Not necessarily within their own universe, but perhaps very much in their slipstream.
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So let's talk then about the other films which may be greenlit. Some of them perhaps already have been, it seems, as a result of Wicked doing very well. And while my hope for this would be more people believing in movie musicals, we really go through these waves of success and failure with movie musicals every few years because the Greatest Showman happened and it didn't initially do all that well. But then it had this resurgence and then it became like one of the most well known and loved movie musicals for a time. And then that seemed like it was going to reignite everyone's belief in movie musicals. And then like the cats diminishes it again. And then Wicked happens and people get excited about it again. And then like it's, it's always up and down. It's like for every great adaptation, for every in the Heights, there is a Dear Evan Hansen Anyway, that is what I would have hoped would happen as a result of Wicked being successful. But the tendency, it seems, in the film industry is to try and emulate something's success by replicating its formula as closely as possible. And they see something like Wicked doing well and they think, oh, you know what? Audiences are clearly loving. Not movie musicals with great scores written by musical theatre composers, not the inherent theatricality of that being brought to the screen. They don't love whimsy and storytelling and fantasy. No, no. What they love is the specificity of seeing the origin story of a villain they already recognize from elsewhere. That's easy. Let's just do that. Let's greenlight a Gaston movie that explores his clearly tortured backstory trying to eat as many eggs as possible during childhood. And, you know, definitely not being gay with Lefou. And yes, this is actually something that is being talked about. It has been reported that a Gaston origin story is in the works. There have been a couple of other stage shows that have deliberately parodied the idea of Wicked. Starkid created a Jafar from Aladdin backstory musical called Twisted Wicked Twisted and going with the whole adjective title theme. There is a show here in the UK called Unfortunate the Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch, which first debuted at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A few years ago and then came back in a fuller version. Right now it's actually on its third or fourth iteration. I think they're really trying to find a version of the show, probably because they've seen the success that Wicked has had on screen that can be ongoingly commercially viable. Not unlike Titanique making the Off Broadway to Broadway journey. It seems like they're trying to hone this show into something that can just tour and cash in on Disney nostalgia and the Disney adult market because it's quite a racy show. So, bearing that in mind, what would the Gaston one be called? And you know, Maleficent's kind of already done this as a film, but with a less fun title. I actually can't even come up with a good pun title for a Gaston movie. I think that tells you how little interest I have in this. This as a concept. But he's not the only one getting his own film. I saw something just the other day about a Cinderella's stepsister movie that's going to explain that they were never really mean in the first place and just misunderstood. I think this was an animated thing. I'm not sure if it was just the one step sister or both stepsisters, but this is such a tired idea. It's actually already been done multiple times. Disney did this even with one of the many sequels to Cinderella that nobody ever watched because they were direct to vhs. Hell, the new Douglas Carter Bean penned book update for the Rodgers and Hammerstein version of Cinderella as a stage musical, which was on Broadway about a decade ago. Also rewrote one of the stepsisters to be good natured and kind, while the other one led a solo version of the iconic song Stepsisters Lament. Why Would a fella want a girl like Her? Honestly, what a classic. Even the Emerald Fennel book of Angelo Webber's Cinderella musical. Didn't think I'd be mentioning that today, did you? But we got there features one stepsister who would much rather just go and make out with the baker, and another who ends up kind of helping Cinderell by just giving her like the vaguest high belting pep talk. So in other words, no, that is definitely not a new idea. And it absolutely contravenes my rule that there are to be no more Cinderella adaptations. We've said it all. We have absolutely said it all. There is nothing new that you can say about that story. But those won't be the last two. And while it might be slightly more interesting to explore the origins of villains from beyond the world of like Disney adjacent stories. I still think that people are pulling the wrong thing out of Wicked success. People are identifying the wrong thing that audiences appreciated about those films. So the question is then, are we going to get more movie musicals? Because Wicked did well. And the one that John M. Chu has talked about wanting to direct inexplicably is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. And the punchlines really write themselves here because one of the biggest complaints about his work specifically on the Wicked films was the color in the editing, in the cinematography, and perhaps the lack thereof that they were sort of dark and less saturated saturated than people might have liked for them to be. So the idea that he wants to direct all shows, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat almost sounds like a joke. It's also, I think, a really challenging musical to bring to the screen. It is, for one thing, inherently narrated by a narrator character who sings as if to an audience who would be, I guess, breaking the the digital fourth wall. It's also biblical and potentially divisive among audiences. If I'm getting pitched this by John M. Chu Film Studio, I'm saying, yeah, but is there anything else you want to do, John? What about Hamilton? Maybe do Hamilton. And that actually, I think is the only possible thing that could be as big as a film release as Wicked was. I think only Hamilton has attained a level of cultural impact which eclipses the one that Wicked had just over a decade before it. Hey, you want to pay just 10 bucks for your phone service at Boost Mobile? Just 10 bucks for your phone service at Boost Mobile? Yeah, I totally do.
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And like Wicked, Hamilton became so instantly successful that talk of a film adaptation quickly followed. And while it took us like a decade and a half for the chatter about a Wicked movie to actually turn into a release date, I do think that inevitably a Hamilton film adaptation will happen at some point and perhaps now sooner rather than later. If John M. Chew said that that's what he wanted to direct next, I think they'd probably let him at this stage. And you know what? Cynthia Erivo would be a great Angelica Schuyler. Otherwise, I think the success of individual movie musical projects, and there are a couple that are allegedly in development, like Disney for some time now, have been said to be working on film adaptations of Once on this island and the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I think the success of each of these is going to depend entirely on their quality and the way in which they are marketed. Because Wicked was hugely well known, as was the wizard of Oz, they had an awful lot to play with. It's super easy to market. You make a Once on this island movie or a spelling bee movie that's going to be a little bit more challenging. A lesson which was learned by Kiss of the Spider Woman, which probably came out in too close proximity, too Wicked for good. But if there was any chance of like riding its coattails a little bit, they definitely didn't figure out how to do that in the marketing whatsoever. Even with Jennifer Lopez in the leading role, Kiss of the Spider Woman was truly like a little flower trying to grow next to the tree that was Wicked sucking up all of the light so that it couldn't do any kind of photosynthesis. I think that's how plants work. It's possible that didn't make any sense. I'm not a botanist. What I'm trying to say is, is even though I would hope that people would look at the success of Wicked and go, let's make more movie musicals now, maybe that's what people want. Maybe this is indicative that they can be great and successful. I also am not foolish enough to think that just because Wicked was great, it means all movie musicals are going to do really well and be well made from now on. Although of course, we were not the only people to notice the success of Wicked on screen. And there is one individual in the theatre industry who, whenever people are talking about musical theatre in the mainstream, is always going to become part of that conversation. And that is Lord Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, who presumably heard John M. Chu talk about Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat when an alarm started going off in his Phantom esque lair and recently shared that he would like to see some film adaptations of his shows remade. I think he wants another Phantom of the Opera movie with talk of Rachel Zegler playing the role of Christine because he's hugely enamored with her as a rising star right now after she played Eva Peron in Evita at the London Palladium. And honestly, that's not a terrible idea. What I'm hugely here for is screen stars with musical theatre chops getting to play those roles in movie musicals. More Cynthia Erivo esque casting please. But I also think that there is probably a decent waiting list of musicals that deserve stage adaptations before we get another Phantom one. And there's a lot about the original Phantom of the Opera movie starring Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum that actually got it quite right and was pretty terrific, I thought. Spoiler alert. It wasn't Gerard Butler or Emmy Rossum. That was a great example example of what I think would have been a fantastic movie musical if it was cast properly, which is an interesting conversation in and of itself because that's an example of one which definitely wasn't. Then you have Chicago, which undeniably was, and then you have something like Hairspray, which even within its own film by and large made good casting decisions, but not universally, which is probably fodder for a different conversation. And maybe even though I'm not going to make any more of these about Wicked, there will be videos from me in the new year talking about the best and worst movie musicals and the best and worst performances in them. Let me know in comments if that is something you would like to see. Also, let me know at this stage if you have an idea for a musical that has yet to be turned into a film but should be. In the meantime, while they may not yet be done milking this green cash cow, I think that is everything that I have to say about Wicked and Wicked for good here on social media. Thank you so much for listening to this final installment of my analysis, which was basically just me rambling about films that may or may not ever happen, but I hope that you appreciated it nonetheless. Please share all of your thoughts in the comments down below. Let's have one final exciting conversation about Wicked and who knows, maybe there will be another film spin off TV thing to bring us all back together once more. In the meantime, we are going to close this particular chapter. But don't worry, I will continue talking here about all things theatre. If you want to hear that, make sure that you are subscribed or following me on podcast platforms. Thank you so much to everyone who has joined me for two years of Wicked the the movie coverage here on social media. I hope that you have enjoyed listening to it as as I have enjoyed putting it all together. As always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.
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MickeyJoTheatre | December 20, 2025
In this final “Wicked Weekend” episode, Mickey-Jo explores the possibility of more Wicked movies, including sequels, spin-offs, or TV adaptations, and transitions to a broader discussion on the current and future state of movie musicals in general. Drawing from recent comments by Stephen Schwartz and developments in the industry, Mickey-Jo critically assesses whether “milking the green cash cow” is creatively justified, and what audiences—and studios—might want next.
Wicked’s Success and Franchise Potential
Mickey-Jo highlights the massive impact of the two-part Wicked film adaptation (Wicked and Wicked For Good), noting both creative and commercial motivations for potential extensions:
Stephen Schwartz’s Comments on a Sequel or Spinoff
During recent press for Wicked For Good, Schwartz stated:
The “Ozzyan Cinematic Universe” and its Pitfalls
Schwartz compared Wicked’s world-building potential to Star Wars’ ever-expanding universe. Mickey-Jo expresses skepticism:
Wicked is not canon to the Wizard of Oz, and Wicked the movie is not even canon to Wicked, the stage musical…, 08:00).Source Material for Sequels & Adaptations
Gregory Maguire’s novels (like Son of a Witch) are seen as obvious fodder for future adaptations, but Schwartz and Holtzman are reportedly pursuing “something separate and distinct from that.” (06:30)
Artistic vs. Commercial Expansion
Mickey-Jo is wary of continuing the musical/film franchise without its core:
Ideas for Spinoffs and Who Should Helm Them
Mickey-Jo is blunt about Stephen Schwartz continuing as composer:
Alternative Concepts
The Movie Musical “Wave”
Mickey-Jo tracks the cyclical optimism and disappointment tied to Broadway-to-Hollywood adaptations:
“Villain Origin” Spin-Offs & Saturation
The success of Wicked is prompting other studios to greenlight villain origin stories (Gaston, Cinderella’s stepsisters), but Mickey-Jo finds the idea tired:
John M. Chu’s Next Project & Other Musicals in the Pipeline
Chu (director of the Wicked films) has expressed interest in directing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat—which Mickey-Jo finds ironically amusing given criticism of Chu’s color palette in Wicked films:
Other Prospective Movie Musicals
Mentions rumored Disney adaptations of Once on This Island and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and recent examples like Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Casting & Remakes
Andrew Lloyd Webber reportedly wants a new Phantom of the Opera movie starring Rachel Zegler—Mickey-Jo is supportive of casting actual musical theatre stars for film versions:
Mickey-Jo delivers an energetic, humorous, but sharply critical take on the idea of continuing the Wicked franchise beyond its central characters. He's skeptical of commercial motives but open to carefully considered creative expansion—with strict caveats on quality and meaningful storytelling. He also uses Wicked as a case study to discuss larger trends (and occasional pitfalls) in the movie musical landscape, delivering plenty of witty asides and memorable pop-culture references throughout.
If you care about the future of movie musicals or are a Wicked superfan, this episode is essential listening—and leaves you pondering both the magic and the dangers of sequels, reboots, and cinematic cash cows.
And as always: “Have a stagey day!”