Cynthia Erivo has revealed it would “take a lot” for her to return to the Wicked franchise for a third film.
The actress played Elphaba in the 2024 movie Wicked and its 2025 sequel, Wicked: For Good. She earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role in the first film.
Cynthia Erivo’s Opinion
Now, speculation has been swirling about whether the cast would reunite for another movie.
However, Cynthia Erivo is adamant it’s too early to talk about a third film, telling Variety, “It’s too soon to even begin to have the conversation about it.”
She added, “It would take a lot to get me back to do it. It has to make sense.”
The two Wicked films were based on the 2003 stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, which was inspired by Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, set in the world of L. Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Schwartz’s Opinion
Schwartz previously revealed he’s teamed up with Holzman again to work on another Oz project. However, it wouldn’t be a sequel to the Wicked story.
He shared with The Ankler, “If there were a right idea, but I’m just not sure that that right idea exists.”
“What I will tell you without giving away too much is that Winnie Holzman 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.”
“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.”
He added, “If someone could think of a continuation of the story that seemed to have a justification beyond simply making money, of course. As far as right now, no one has yet presented an idea that I’ve heard that would justify such a thing.”
Possible New Project
When asked if a new project could feature one of the characters from Wicked, he explained, “Well, that’s the point. It is a vibrant world – like the Star Wars universe has yielded so many adjacent projects, some of which are truly excellent in their own right.”
“And don’t forget that L. Frank Baum didn’t just write The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. There were many subsequent books.”