Wicked Finally Admits It's Two Parts, Moves Up Part Two Release Date

It’s almost time to head to Oz with Glinda and Elphaba. The movie adaptation of Wicked is perhaps one of the most animated movies on the 2024 Movie schedule, and yet much of the details surrounding the film have been kept quiet. So much so that when the first trailer was released, many fans wondered if the story was still getting split into two installments since the trailer seemed to be hiding it. Well, thankfully (or unfortunately, depending on your opinion), the team behind the musical film is finally admitting that they’re sticking with their two-part release plan.

Wicked: Part One has yet to hit theaters yet, but that hasn’t stopped Universal Studios from starting the press for Part Two. The official Twitter account for the film tweeted out a small teaser showing the Wicked logo with “Part Two” underneath. Also included in the graphic was the release date for the highly anticipated installment of the film, which is coming sooner than previously announced.

Part One has been no stranger to being shuffled around the movie release schedule, having moved years and months before finally settling on a November 22nd release date, putting it in direct competition with Gladiator II. Part Two is headed down a similar path. Originally slated for Christmas Day 2025, the movie then got moved up to the Wednesday before November 26th, and now it’s slated to come out on November 21st, 2025.

It’s unclear why Part Two has been pushed up yet again, but it could be to avoid competing against Disney’s Zooptopia 2, which is slated for November 26th. This would give the film five days to get a solid box office score without having to compete with the Mouse House. As of now, it’s the only film set to release on the 21st, but that will probably change as the 2025 release schedule begins to fill out in the coming months.

Taking the two-hour and forty-five-minute musical and splitting it into two separate movies was always part of director Jon M. Chu’s plan. However, fans of the story have always been skeptical about whether or not the split is a good choice. While there are definitely challenges to fitting the entire musical into one movie, other musical adaptations have done so with much success.

Many have assumed that the movies will follow the traditional act structure of the Broadway musical, with Part One telling Act One’s story and Part Two telling Act Two. However, that theory went out the window when the trailer for the first part was released and featured notable scenes from the second act of the musical. This left many fans confused and wondering if Chu and the writers, Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, are going to deviate from the source material and include original plot points.

Only time will tell, but at least we’ll find out sooner rather than later. You can catch Wicked Part One when it hits theaters on November 22nd.