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As moviegoers return to theaters to see \u201cWicked: For Good,\u201d the sequel to the 2024 Broadway adaptation about an unlikely friendship between two witches, they may be surprised by the second installment\u2019s darker tone.<\/p>\n
Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), an unfairly villainized figure in the mythical land of Oz, spends much of the new film trying to save her kingdom from a descent into authoritarianism.<\/p>\n
In a new song by composer Stephen Schwartz called \u201cThere\u2019s No Place Like Home,\u201d Erivo sings of her beloved homeland, \u201cWhy do I love this place that\u2019s never loved me?\u201d<\/p>\n
Schwartz wrote the song during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he and playwright Winnie Holzman were working to adapt their long-running 2003 stage musical into a two-film structure. <\/p>\n
The song, and the musical\u2019s storyline, reflect the complicated feelings Schwartz believes he and many other Americans have about their country in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter where you lie on a political or ideological spectrum, it must be obvious that the America we live in today is quite a different country than 10 years ago,\u201d Schwartz said in a Zoom interview with NBC News after the film\u2019s record breaking opening weekend<\/a>. \u201cAnd so if you feel that something is being lost, the question then becomes, well, what do you do about that?\u201d<\/p>\n Universal Pictures\u2019 \u201cWicked: For Good\u201d is directed by Jon M. Chu<\/a> and stars Erivo as the Wicked Witch of the West and Ariana Grande as the Good Witch, Glinda. (NBC News and Universal Pictures share Comcast as a parent company.)<\/p>\n While the first movie centered on the magic of the witches\u2019 school days, the new film takes more of a foreboding tone. Oz\u2019s talking animals have been locked in cages and the Munchkins are prevented from traveling freely, images that some viewers<\/a> have taken as an allegory about the dangers of fascism or a critique <\/a>of current U.S. immigration policies<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cNo Place Like Home,\u201d Schwartz said, is essentially a love song Erivo sings to a declining place. <\/p>\n \u201cAny of us who live in a place that we don\u2019t necessarily feel great about, or that hasn\u2019t necessarily been great to us, we grapple with that question: Why do we care so much?\u201d<\/p>\n Schwartz\u2019s new song for Grande, on the other hand, is about a political awakening. \u201cThe Girl in the Bubble\u201d marks Glinda\u2019s \u201cturning point,\u201d Schwartz said, a moment when she realizes that she is enabling the cruelty and dishonesty of Oz\u2019s leaders. \u201cAs privileged as she is, she can\u2019t live with herself anymore,\u201d Schwartz said.<\/p>\n Unlike the songs in the first \u201cWicked\u201d film, which weren\u2019t eligible for Academy Awards because they had been in the stage musical, both \u201cThere\u2019s No Place Like Home\u201d and \u201cThe Girl in the Bubble\u201d are possible best original song Oscar nominees.<\/p>\n