Fans of Wicked, get ready with your movie ticket and popcorn in hand, because as of Nov. 22, the Broadway hit’s long-anticipated film adaptation starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda is now out in theaters.
For a little bit of a timeline on the history and backstory of this beloved musical, the movie is an adaptation of the musical Wicked that started its original run on Broadway in 2003, and in 2017, surpassed Phantom of the Opera as the second-highest grossing Broadway musical of all time. The stage production of Wicked is a loose adaptation of the 1995 revisionist novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, written by Gregory Maguire. And of course, this novel was inspired by the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz novel written in 1900 by L. Frank Baum, and the eventual *classic* 1939 film adaptation, The Wizard of Oz.
The original Broadway musical won three Tony Awards, numerous Drama Desk Awards, and the original cast album even won a Grammy. So clearly, the songs from the musical were a hit. But is this the case for the 2024 film, as well — aka, does the new Wicked movie have all the same songs as the stage production, or are there new songs in the Wicked movie? Let’s talk about it.
While the 2024 movie has a runtime of two hours and 40 minutes (just a few minutes shorter than the entire on stage production in and of itself), it actually only covers Act One of the Broadway musical. Act Two will be in a completely separate second movie, which will be premiering pretty much a year from now, on Nov. 21, 2025.
If you look at the soundtrack from the 2024 movie — which, BTW, the whole album is now out for streaming as of Nov. 22 for your at-home enjoyment — you will see that all 11 songs from Act One of the musical are included. That includes: “No One Mourns the Wicked,” “Dear Old Shiz,” “The Wizard And I,” “What Is This Feeling?,” “Something Bad,” “Dancing Through Life,” “Popular,” “I’m Not That Girl,” “One Short Day,” “A Sentimental Man,” and “Defying Gravity.” There is also an “Ozdust Duet – Bonus Track” feature by the Wicked Orchestra on the album.
So, the answer to whether the new Wicked movie has new songs is no… sort of. Because while the first Wicked movie doesn’t have any new songs, the second movie will have *two* new songs, as confirmed by by composer Stephen Schwartz in a USA Today article published on Nov. 22.
“The second movie has two new songs because the storytelling demanded it,” Schwartz said. “I wrote a couple things for this film that we ultimately felt we didn’t need.”
So, there you have it: The first Wicked movie stays faithful to the Broadway musical, but the 2025 release will come with some newness. Until then, you can at least listen to all your old favorites, now sung by new stars — enjoy!