Don’t be fooled: It’s best to know a few basics before watching Wicked

So you go and see Badthe major film musical based on the the second highest-grossing Broadway musical of all timebased on Gregory Maguire’s 2000 novel Badbased on the 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. (And only partially influenced by the 1939 film The Wizard of Ozwhich, unlike Baum’s books, is not in the public domain.) That’s a pretty complicated lineage of everything that appears on screen, and you may have some questions. Or maybe you think you don’t have any questions because you don’t fully realize what you’re getting into – and you’re not alone, based on some of the reactions people have had after watching the film. We can help.

How long is Wicked and does it have a post-credits scene?

Let’s get that out of the way first: it’s two hours and forty minutes. And no, there’s no post-credits scene, no mid-credits scene, animated characters dancing during the credits – nothing like that. Once the big halftime song plays, you can start thinking about the cliffhanger you just experienced.

Wait, what do you mean by ‘halftime number’?

You don’t become the second highest-grossing Broadway musical in history without spectacular song and dance routines. Bad is full of song and dance numbers written by legendary Broadway lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz. Arguably, it’s not really a movie without the musical numbers, which convey most of the important information, all the important emotions, and provide all the spectacle.

But movie studios don’t like selling movie musicals to the masses. Case in point: when I saw the 2024 Mean girls movie, some attendees in my theater were vocally surprised and annoyed when they learned it was a musical, because the trailers largely obscured the fact that it involved song and dance. The same happened with the 2023 one The color purple And Wonka – it has become quite standard for film-musical marketing hide the fact that the movie contains music. Most of BadThe film’s trailers followed suit, concealing the fact that it was a musical until a month before its release.

Why are so many musical films made if marketers don’t think film musicals are popular or trendy?

Keep in mind that the marketers are not the same people who greenlight or make these films; they only come along afterwards and figure out how to sell what someone else has made. But that said, my best guess is that studios remain endlessly dependent on well-known, trusted, and popular IP — and a show that has earned more than $1.6 billion on Broadway is seen as having a built-in audience. But anyway. That all explains ‘number’, but we haven’t gotten to ‘halftime’ or ‘cliffhanger’ yet.

Is Wicked a complete movie?

No! It’s the first half of the Broadway show – the first of two acts. The title in the first ad was Bad. The title on the screen is Bad — Part 1. However, in marketing it is now billed as Bad: Part I. Maybe this is just confusing to fact checkers and copy editors, but I can tell you we’re not crazy about it. Anyway, the movie ends right at the intermission, with the song “Defying Gravity,” just as things get really serious.

When will Wicked: Part II be released?

November 21, 2025 – actually a year later Bad: Part I‘original edition. The official title was original Bad Part 2: Foreverbut judging by current marketing materials, it appears that this is now the case Bad: Part II.

Waiting until people are in the theater to play the title “Part I” on them – doesn’t that feel like yet another deliberate fake-out?

So Part I is 160 minutes… How long is the Wicked the Broadway show?

It lasts 165 minutes, including both acts and a 15-minute intermission. Crazy, right?

What makes these movies last twice as long as the Broadway show?

Bad: Part I is longer because it adds many more non-musical narrative scenes, based on Gregory Maguire’s book and the adapted Broadway musical. For starters, “Defying Gravity” itself feels strangely hyper-extended, due to the action sequences and dialogue that break up the song between verses. The film also spends more time with the eventual wicked witch, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), in her childhood, and more time on scenes of her rivalry and friendship with classmate and roommate Galinda (Ariana Grande).

Bad: Part II will be longer because it will add two new songs written by Schwartz, according to the composer himself. Given the big leaps in the second act through Elphaba’s career as a witch, which the musical bypasses, it wouldn’t be surprising if Part II follows Part I‘s lead and fills in some gaps with more character work.

Finally it is possible Part II will repeat some of them Part I‘s songs (at least, more than the original Broadway musical already does) to extend its length and/or make it draw a little more heavily on the show’s iconic moments and songs from Act I. That seems relatively unlikely, since director John M. Chu considers himself a big fan of the Broadway musical, but it may be a necessary practicality when telling two halves of a story a year apart.

Is the Wicked book any good? Should I read it?

Maguire has made a career of retelling fairy tales as elaborate literary novels, but he always comes back to the Wicked series, which isn’t just Elphaba’s story: Later novels in the series centrally on Elphaba’s son and granddaughter, with one side book, A lion among menspend more time with the Cowardly Lion. They’re definitely worth reading if you like dense, thoughtful literary fantasy – the first book in the series, fully titled as Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the Westis a particularly rich character study that is narratively much more complicated than the musical or the film.

What about the original Broadway stars of Wicked? Are Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth in Wicked the movie?

Are you sure you want to know? This is where we cross the line: “Some people want to know if they’re going in, and some people aren’t.”

Yes, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth have a nice musical cameo in the middle of “One Short Day,” when Elphaba and Galinda (just “Glinda” at that point in the story) are touring the Emerald City and stop to watch a show called Wizomaniawhich offers an explanation of the Wizard of Oz and the magical book of the Grimmerie, which is of course about to become important. Menzel and Chenoweth take the stage together in elaborate robes to sing about the city’s history — and elbow each other in mock diva rivalry as they try to one-up each other.

Ariana Grande is a big star, but where do I know Cynthia Erivo from?

Isn’t she spectacular? You can see her in the 2019 Harriet Tubman movie Harriet – and mostly not singing, although she did write and perform the soundtrack song “Stand Up,” which earned her an Oscar nomination.

She also starred in HBO’s Stephen King miniseries The outsider as Holly Gibney, the neurodivergent sleuth turned one of King’s favorite recurring characters over the past two decades. She sings as the Blue Fairy in Disney’s little-loved live-action Pinocchioand stars as Aretha Franklin in season 3 of Geniusthe anthology show where each season profiles a different creator.

But for our money, this is the best place to see her on film Bad gave you the Cynthia Erivo itch is in Bad times at El Royalethe 2018 neo-noir directed by The cabin in the woodsDrew Goddard. She does it all indoors Bad times: Sings, stars, sweats it out in a tense situation, and hangs out with a shirtless Chris Hemsworth. If Bad‘s cliffhanger leaves you a little unsatisfied and you don’t want to just go to the Broadway show or read Maguire’s book, Bad times is your best next step.