Jon M. Chu reveals what he added and changed in Wicked: For Good after first film's success — inc...

The director returned to the U.K. in March to do reshoots and incorporate new scenes into the upcoming sequel, which had been shot at the same time as the origi

The director returned to the U.K. in March to do reshoots and incorporate new scenes into the upcoming sequel, which had been shot at the same time as the original movie.

Jon M. Chu reveals what he added and changed in Wicked: For Good after first film's success — including a cameo

The director returned to the U.K. in March to do reshoots and incorporate new scenes into the upcoming sequel, which had been shot at the same time as the original movie.

By Patrick Gomez

Patrick Gomez is an Executive Editor at . Formerly at People magazine and The A.V. Club, the Critics Choice and Television Critics Association member has appeared on 'Today,' 'Extra!,' 'Access Hollywood,' 'E! News,' 'CNN,' and 'Nightline,' and can be seen frequently on 'Good Morning America.' Follow the Texas Native at @PatrickGomezLA wherever your media is social for all things 'For All Mankind' 'Top Chef,' and puppy related.

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October 18, 2025 1:45 p.m. ET

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Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) and Glinda (Ariana Grande) in 'Wicked: For Good'. Credit:

Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

The cast of *Wicked* must have felt swept up in a tornado.

"One day we'd be shooting in their dorm room at Shiz and the next day we'd be shooting in the Kiamo Ko [castle], which is set years later," director Jon M. Chu recently told *Deadline* of filming both *Wicked* movies concurrently. "One day we'd be shooting 'What Is This Feeling?' And then the next day we'd be shooting 'As Long as You're Mine,'"

Chu says just 12 weeks after completing principal photography, he did an initial rough edit of both films, which he screened in one sitting before setting the second aside and focusing on the first installment ahead of its release last year.

It wasn't until January of this year that he looked at his cut of the sequel again, an experience he said "was very revealing because some choices stuck. And some choices we just had changed. The movie had changed or I had changed."

Here's what he revealed he changed... for the better?

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A new version of "For Good"

"We added a couple of pieces of dialogue at its beginning," Chu told *Deadline *of the tearjerker finale duet between Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande). "So [Elphaba] says, 'Look at me, not through your eyes, through theirs.' That's new. She used to say, 'Look at me. I'm limited'.... She says, 'Look at me,' and she pauses. We really wanted to refine the song."

Glinda (Ariana Grande) in 'Wicked: For Good'.

Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

More — and younger — Glinda

Fans of the stage production will recall that the film ends similarly to how it begins, with Glinda speaking to the Munchkins from her bubble.

After watching the rough edit, Chu decided to revisit Glinda's final speech because, he said, "I just needed to refine it."

The director also insisted on filming a scene that had been cut during initial production: a peek at Glinda's childhood, which shaped Baby Glinda into the woman who arrived at Shiz in the first movie and colors her choices in *For Good*. (Much like the flashbacks of Baby Elphaba and Baby Nessa at the start of *Wicked*.)

"We had that scene in the script, and I knew we should have kept it, but we didn't shoot it at the time because we had a lot of other pressures," Chu said, adding that, at the time, producer Marc Platt had promised the chance to go back and add it if he felt they needed it.

Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) in 'Wicked: For Good'.

Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

A celebrity voice for the Cowardly Lion

Chu told *Deadline* that around the time of the reshoots in March, he got the idea to DM an actor on social media, asking if they would be interested in voicing the Cowardly Lion, a grown-up version of the cub Elphaba and Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) save in the first film.

"I was like, 'It's not a ton of lines, but maybe you have a little time. I know you're busy. I'll come to you,'' Chu said of his messages. "He was like, 'Why the f--- not, let's go!' And then we went ahead and recorded the lines."

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.***

While Chu is keeping the identity of the star a secret, he did tease, "Man, wait until the red carpet when the actor who gave us the Cowardly Lion's voice steps foot on it. It'll be wild."

*Wicked: For Good* flies into theaters Nov. 21.**

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