“Wicked: For Good” may have only been in theaters for a few days, but the discourse about its theme and, most importantly, its ending still has the internet in a chokehold! So if you haven’t seen it yet, then let us be the first to tell you: the rest of this article will spoil the ending!
Suggested Reading
Like, we’re telling you right now, further reading will only ruin the greatness that you stand to see. This article would be better suited for you after you’ve sat through the two hours and seventeen minutes. Seriously, we mean it. Do not read ahead if you don’t want “Wicked: For Good” spoiled!
OK, don’t say we didn’t warn you!
As we mentioned a bit ago, online chatter about the film’s ending is taking over and now, director Jon M. Chu is finally explaining just how Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba came to meet the fate she did. Specifically, he’s breaking down just how she was able to outwit Dorothy and walk into the sunset— and not melt from a bucket of water like the lore (and “The Wizard of Oz”) had us all believe.
In fact, at the end of the film, the love of her life Fiyero (played by Jonathan Bailey) who has since been turned into a scarecrow comes back to Elphaba’s place of residence and knocks on the ground. That’s when she pops up fully alive and well from what appears to be a trap door underneath.
Well, in the film and according to Chu, that whole “fake death” scenario has to do with that scrap piece of fabric from Fiyero that Chistery (the flying monkey chief) brought back to Elphaba earlier in the scene when she and Glinda were saying their final goodbyes.
Speaking in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Chu answered the biggest question as to whether or not that piece of fabric contained a message from Fiyero to Elphaba or not, alerting her that he was still alive and would be coming back to her via Dorothy.
“It’s important to know that I think there is correspondence to know that he’s showing up there. Otherwise, why would she go down there?” Chu said. “That piece of clothing has a note on it. We didn’t want to do a close-up on that because it would’ve been too much too soon. We need, as an audience, to believe in the story that’s being told.”
As far as the very end scene when Elphaba and Fiyero walk off into the Land Beyond Oz while Ariana Grande’s Glinda the Good Witch is left as the new savior of Oz, Chu explained that he wanted the former couple’s new future to be one full of potential and goodness.
“We explored versions of that desert that were a lot darker and scarier— like walking into your fears,” Chu added. “But I think it is not dead space, it’s possibility. No one has explored that horizon because everyone’s too scared. So I wanted it to feel like they get to walk off into the sunset and determine what’s next for themselves.”
“Wicked: For Good” is in theaters everywhere now.
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