Warning: The following contains spoilers for Wicked: For Good
Jon M. Chu finally explains one of the most haunting scenes of Wicked: For Good. The sequel follows the events of the Broadway musical. Ariana Grande-Butera and Cynthia Erivo reprise their roles as Glinda and Elphaba. The cast also features Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater, Jeff Goldblum, and Jonathan Bailey.
Though the movie has just been released, it is already making waves at the box office. During its Thursday previews, the film made $30.8 million at the domestic box office. In a fairly slow fall, this is not only the best preview gross of the season, but the highest of 2025 to date.
Following the release of the film, Chu explains one key element of Wicked: For Good's ending moments to Entertainment Weekly. Specifically, the director spoke about the meaning behind the desert that Elphaba and Fiyero walk into during the final moments. According to Chu, the team considered "versions of that desert that were a lot darker and scarier
However, the version they decided on represented something far more hopeful. In the final version, this represented "possibility."
"[There were] versions of that desert that were a lot darker and scarier — like walking into your fears. [But ultimately, the desert] is not dead space, it's possibility. No one has explored that horizon because everyone's too scared. Let's put sparkles in that sand!"
Chu's inclusion of the desert finds its origins in L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz. The author described this desolate environment beyond Oz as the Deadly Desert.
Canonically, there was no one correct answer to what this desert should look like. It is not present in the original Wizard of Oz, and the limits of a live production leave things up to the imagination in the musical. As such, the movie was a chance for Chu and his team to make a decision on how to visually represent this unique space.
While there is not much detail in Wicked: For Good's desert, the area is not completely forboding. Even if visually sparse, it "is not dead space" because it does not merely swallow up Fiyero and Elphaba. They are walking into seeming nothing, but the portrayal allows for Chu's intention of this representing "possibility."
This ultimately puts a positive spin on something that could otherwise be a fairly dour ending for Wicked: For Good. Even though Elphaba survives, Glinda does not know, and she has now been forced into hiding. Fiyero is also forever changed. But this desert means that being changed for good could open more doors.
