Wicked 3 may be happening.
Wicked is the 2003 stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman. The show is loosely based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, which itself was a reimagining of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book. That novel was famously turned into the 1939 novel starring Judy Garland.
Director Jon M. Chu and Universal Pictures have turned Wicked into a motion picture franchise, with the first movie having been released last year. Wicked: For Good just arrived this week and sees Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande reprise their respective roles as Elphaba Thropp and Glinda Upland. Holzman wrote the screenplay for For Good with Dana Fox, while Schwartz serves as the composer, lyricist, and an executive producer.
What do we know about Wicked 3?
Speaking with The Ankler, Schwartz revealed that he and Holzman are already working on another project set in Oz.
“What I will tell you without giving away too much is that Winnie Holzman (the original Wicked book writer and film’s co-screenwriter) and I are doing some work right now on ideas that aren’t a sequel to Wicked, because I think the Glinda and Elphaba story feels complete — but there are other aspects that could be explored,” Schwartz said. “Gregory Maguire, the original Wicked novelist, has several books, for example. But there’s another idea that Winnie and I are discussing: not a sequel, but an adjunct. Let me put it that way.”
No other details about the project are available at this time, as it sounds like it’s still in the early days of development.
Wicked: For Good is now playing in United States theaters. Along with Erivo and Grande, the cast of the sequel includes Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar, Jeff Goldblum as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Marissa Bode as Nessarose Thropp, Ethan Slater as Boq Woodsman, and Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible.
