I'm Happy About Wicked's Oscar Nominations, But There's One Category That Actually Makes Me Mad

At this point in the race for the Academy Awards, the 2025 Oscar nominations are set in stone. With some of the perceived controversies, snubs and just plain-old head-scratchers that are present in this latest class, the chagrin of all following is not going away any time soon.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t rant about the choices that have been made, and for as much as I loved Wicked, there’s one of the film’s nominations I need to talk out with you, the public. It’s not out of spite, but rather out of my abiding sense for justice and fair play. Ok, maybe there’s a little bit of spite, but it’s only because of those previously mentioned values.

Wicked’s Best Score Nomination For The 2025 Oscars Feels Wrong

With apologies to legendary musical maestros John Powell and Stephen Schwartz, I don’t think this should have been a nominee for Best Original Score. I will now pause for the rabble risen in the wake of such a statement, and based on how even a very simple issue can trigger Wicked fan backlash, there’s going to be some of you out there.

Got that out of your system? Good, because it gave me a chance to start yelling out some outrage myself. I make the case that follows with a healthy dose of respect for Mr. Powell and Mr. Schwartz, especially when respectively credited works like the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy scores and Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame have come from their minds. With pleasantries now out of the way, let’s dive into why this is such a bad choice.

Wicked Proves Hans Zimmer’s Dune: Part Two Score Should Have Landed A Nomination

My potentially controversial take comes from the fact that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences actually disqualified Hans Zimmer’s Dune: Part Two score from this year’s show. According to the powers-that-be, there wasn’t enough fresh material to justify the second half of Denis Villeneuve’s epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s epic doorstopper as having a musical score unique from the first half.

The nuts and bolts of why that’s such a problem are quite simple thanks to consulting the AMPAS guidelines on “Special Rules For Music Awards.” Per Section 2C, this very special threshold for a Best Original Score nomination applies to both Wicked and Dune: Part Two:

Dune: Part Two is obviously a sequel, so that road gets a bit rocky - especially since Hans Zimmer was among the 2022 Academy Award winners for that previous score. However, “franchises from any media” would probably count “legendary Broadway hits that have run over decades,” which is where Wicked should have been challenged more heartily.

I’ll admit, I’m not a Wicked expert, so I wouldn’t be able to tell you how much new music is added to the film. But that being said, this leads to the next perceived problem in this whole libretto litigation.

Wicked's Musical Math Doesn't Seem To Add Up

There are two different ways we can run some quick and dirty math to estimate how much of Wicked’s musical package fits that “newly composed music” stipulation. But before we press on, we have to make one hypothetical assumption of our own. Based on the rules asking for “newly composed music” devoid of “pre-existing themes borrowed from previous scores,” let’s say that John Powell’s music doesn’t touch Stephen Schwartz’s contributions at all.

The first angle we can take is comparing the length of the score album, which clocks in at 78 minutes rounded to the nearest minute, to the film’s 160 minute running time. With 50% of the movie coming in at around 80 minutes, that’s a losing battle due to that ratio failing to exceed “more than 80%” of the running time. However, even though Wicked is a musical, it’s not wall-to-wall music.

Which pivots to the second angle of scrutiny: comparing the length of that score to the combined total of Wicked’s musical contributions. Again, we’re using the rounded figure of 79 minutes, which will now be added to the roughly 56 minute length of Wicked: The Soundtrack.

Yes, we’re counting “The Ozdust Duet” bonus track, and presuming that every stitch of music in this Universal Picture is accounted for in the 135 minutes between these two albums. 80% of that running time would amount to 108 minutes, which sees Wicked lose yet again. What makes all of this even more frustrating is the fact that if the producers had waited another year, a Best Score nomination could have been easier to obtain.

A Score Nomination For Wicked For Good Could Have Been An Easier Push

There’s something strange about Wicked, and that’s the fact that unlike many other musical adaptations, it has no original songs. That’s thanks to Stephen Schwartz admitting in an interview with The Messenger (via Playbill) that Wicked For Good was the logical place to insert the brand-new tunes that await.

Even without knowing the numbers surrounding that November 2025 sequel, I can tell you that the Best Score nomination would have probably been easier to achieve simply by waiting for those new songs to come into play. With however many new tunes are waiting in the wings, there's a good number of new melodic derivations that could be come out of those future treasures.

Of course, if Cynthia Erivo's wish to release Wicked 2 footage was granted, we'd have a better idea of what we're dealing with here. However, I feel it’s going to be even harder for John Powell and Stephen Schwartz to nab that repeat nomination. As the AMPAS regulations imply the need to compare Wicked For Good’s score not only to the original musical, but also the musical score for Wicked, that burden of proof is going to be an even steeper climb.

I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade here, as I was as taken by the majesty of Wicked’s cinematic incarnation as most fans were. But if we’re going to play by the rules, there needs to be just a little more transparency when it comes to the nomination process.

In any case, we’ll find out if this uproar amounts to anything on March 2nd, when the 97th annual Academy Awards air on ABC. However, if Conan O’Brien and his writing team happen to read this rant in preparation to craft their jokes for the show, then I’ll definitely know the effort I’ve put forth here was worth it.