“Wicked: Part Two’s” official title, “Wicked: For Good,” prompted some mixed reactions online when it was first revealed in December. Director Jon M. Chu, however, believes the title of the second installment has certainly been changed for the better.
“Who wants a movie called ‘Wicked: Part Two’?” Chu told Variety on the National Board of Review Awards gala carpet on Tuesday night in New York City. “On the script, it always said, ‘For Good,’ and so it was just a point of like, ‘Do we really want to call this “Part Two”?’ And nobody wants that.”
The title is a reference to the penultimate song of the hit Broadway musical, in which Elphaba (played by Cynthia Erivo in the film adaptation) and Glinda (Ariana Grande) sing about how their relationship has impacted their lives. Chu noted that no other film titles were under consideration. “I mean, that’s the destination. ‘For Good,’ we know, is like, ‘Where are we going with this movie? Let’s finish this thing,’” he explained.
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Chu accepted the award for best director at the National Board of Review Awards gala, where he, along with “Wicked” stars Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Michelle Yeoh and Ethan Slater, as well as producers Marc Platt and David Nicksay, also garnered the best film accolade. Actor Ryan Reynolds presented the top honor to the “Wicked” team.
“‘Wicked’ is a musical, and I feel that they’ve been very open about that,” Reynolds quipped on stage, alluding to the recent trend of not explicitly marketing musical films as musicals. “Music: it’s a language. It’s a language written by few but felt by many, and there is only one Stephen Schwartz. Like sports and the theatrical experience, music is truly one of the last great opportunities for togetherness, and this beautiful film is a signal fire of togetherness. Feeling the same thing at the same moment is an experience that is in scarce supply these days.”
The National Board of Review also bestowed its spotlight award to Erivo and Grande for their creative collaboration.
“True collaboration is honest, egoless and it leads with acceptance. It’s building and earning deep trust and nourishing that every step of the way with honesty and care. It’s leaving room for the feelings and questions and ideas of one another without the want to be right, but with curiosity and respect,” Grande said on stage, standing beside her “Wicked” co-star Erivo.
The pair continued to reflect on both their friendship and artistic partnership. “It’s knowing how to navigate when one of us needs a hand held and the other needs space and quiet,” Erivo said at one point. “It’s knowing innately that your scene partner needs your encouragement the first time she does a stunt. It’s the singular ‘I love you’ text or the random ‘I’m proud of you’ voice note.”
“It is being so good at acting that no one ever finds out how much we actually fucking loathe each other,” Grande said jokingly, to which Erivo added, “We fooled you!”
“Wicked” has become the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation in domestic box office history, ahead of 1978’s “Grease” ($188.62 million), as well as the second-biggest worldwide stage-to-screen reimagining after 2008’s “Mamma Mia” ($611 million). Universal’s musical movie has received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike, sparking an influx of memes, merchandise and videos of moviegoers enjoying sing-along screenings.
On the carpet, Erivo said she hasn’t had the opportunity to participate in one of the sing-alongs in cinemas, but she has seen “really, really wonderful” clips posted by fans online. “I’m gonna try and sneak into one because I really want to,” she told Variety.
“Wicked: For Good” soars into theaters on Nov. 21.