Two New Songs, Same Old Plot Holes: Our Day-After Take On Wicked 2

Table of Contents

We kicked this one off by putting our cards on the table. We both watched Wicked: Part One last year and thought, “Yeah, that was good.” Not life-changing. Not something we were gonna get a tattoo over. Just good.

Beautiful visuals, great performances, lovely costumes. But not the kind of thing that redefined cinema or made us want to memorize every line. And that’s important to say because there’s this… intensity around the fandom. It’s fine to love something deeply, but we’re not here to pretend we adored every second just to avoid upsetting people.

From the get-go, we warned listeners that this episode would include spoilers. Big ones. So if you’re reading this and haven’t seen Part Two, maybe pause and come back later.

Note
The following is an editorialized transcript of our weekly literary podcast. If you would like to listen to the podcast, click the play button above orlisten on your favorite platform with the links below.

First Reactions and Big Shifts

Let’s talk first impressions. Right away, it was clear to us that Part Two is visually on the same level as its predecessor, gorgeous sets, dazzling costumes (especially Glinda’s), and fantastic vocal performances from Cynthia Erivo. But while Part One carried a novelty in its aesthetic, Part Two reuses much of that world. So yes, it’s still stunning, but the “wow” factor hits a little less hard the second time around.

What we struggled with was the shift in focus. This is supposed to be Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, a story that centers on Elphaba. And yet, so much of Part Two felt like it was about Glinda.

We joked that the camera had a crush on Ariana Grande with how often it lingered on her. This isn’t a dig at Ariana; she sounded good and hit those insane notes, but from a storytelling angle, it felt unbalanced. Elphaba is the heart of this story, and we left the theater wondering why she was sidelined for long stretches.

Also worth pointing out: Wicked, the stage musical, already has a second act that’s not as strong as the first. That issue, unfortunately, carried over into the movie. Even with the added runtime, some of the plot holes and thin character arcs from the musical stayed exactly as they were.

Plot Holes, Missed Opportunities, and Performances That Deserved More

So let’s get into what frustrated us. We were both looking for deeper character development and more meaningful transitions, especially for side characters who play key roles in the Wizard of Oz lore.

Take Boq, for example. In Part One, he’s kind of a throwaway character, a bit goofy, not super memorable. But in Part Two, Ethan Slater brought real emotional heft to the role, especially after Boq transforms into the Tin Man.

His anger, the grief in his eyes, the way he confronted Glinda in the courtyard, we were ready for a scene between them, a true reckoning. And then… he disappeared. That thread just vanished.

Same deal with the Cowardly Lion. We were told, multiple times, that Elphaba saved him from a traumatic experience, and that’s why he’s afraid now. But when we rewatched Part One, we didn’t see that trauma. He was saved, yes, but nothing extreme happened to him. Why not flesh that out a bit?

And then there’s Fiyero, who becomes the Scarecrow. We wanted more buildup to that transformation. It’s an important twist, but in the movie, it felt rushed. There was a quick montage, a scarecrow-on-a-stick visual, and then boom, end of movie.

If you weren’t already familiar with the musical or the book, you’d probably be lost. They could’ve threaded that transformation through the story instead of cramming it in at the end.

One thing we did appreciate: the two original songs added for the film. “There’s No Place Like Home,” sung by Elphaba, was beautifully done. Cynthia Erivo’s voice brought real emotion and warmth, and we both agreed it suited the moment. “Girl in the Bubble,” sung by Glinda, felt a little more like a vehicle for Ariana to show off her vocal range. It was fine, but didn’t hit the same emotional note for us.

Themes, Messaging, and the Tired Trope of “The Other”

A big theme running through the movie is otherness, the classic “outsider fighting the system” arc. We’ve seen this theme done countless times. And while it still works to a degree, we found ourselves wondering if we need to keep revisiting this same idea in every fantasy story.

How many more movies are going to show us a misunderstood weirdo fighting against a corrupt regime before we say, “Okay, we get it”?

There were moments that felt eerily current, though. When the Wizard tells the characters that the truth doesn’t really matter, it’s just what people believe, we felt that. We cringed. Because it felt very much like something ripped from a political speech.

We did like that the movie spent more time focusing on the animals and their oppression. That thread was underplayed in the musical’s second act, but the movie kept it alive throughout. It gave us a little more depth and helped flesh out the stakes of the world.

And of course, friendship and female empowerment were strong themes too. The bond between Glinda and Elphaba remains central to the story, and the movie explores it well.

That said, the first fight between them was a bit wild. Not in a bad way, we laughed. It just felt like a very real, oddly relatable way two people might fight if they were really close and suddenly had to throw hands.

Casting Choices and Hollywood Decisions

We need to talk about the casting choices, specifically the decision to bring in big-name actors who can’t sing.

We’re looking at Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh. Look, we love them both. Incredible performers. But this is a musical.

Everyone around them is singing their faces off, and then these two kind of… talk-sing? Michelle Yeoh’s entire number was cut down, and we noticed. The contrast was jarring.

It makes us wonder: why not cast someone who can act and sing? Broadway is full of people who can do both. We get that the studio wants big names to pull in an audience, but in a project like this, it’s disappointing when a performance has to be edited down because the actor can’t hit the notes.

Final Thoughts: Pretty, Popular, and a Bit Empty

Look, this movie is going to do incredibly well. The audience score is high, the fans are all-in, and the visuals are genuinely stunning. But we’re not here to hand out praise just because something is shiny. For us, Wicked: Part Two was fun to look at, but hollow in many places. It felt like a lot of missed chances — places where they could have gone deeper, shown more, taken bigger swings.

We left wanting more character arcs, more development, more consequences. Nessa’s journey to becoming the Wicked Witch of the East? Barely touched. Dorothy’s entrance? Handled oddly, especially with the slippers suddenly being white instead of ruby red. That’s kind of a big choice to make when you’re riffing off such an iconic story.

And when we talk about the response online, the obsessive fan discourse, the attacks on people who critique the film, the constant push of merchandise and brand tie-ins, it’s honestly exhausting. It’s a movie. It’s not a personality. And we’re allowed to say it didn’t do everything right.

So yeah. It was fine. It was a movie. If you loved it, cool. We’re happy for you. But we’re also allowed to be tired of it, tired of the hype, tired of the marketing, and tired of pretending that good visuals automatically make a great movie.