There’s plenty of buzz surrounding the yellow brick road, as the full trailer for Wicked: For Good has achieved a celebratory milestone. The two-and-a-half-minute clip racked up 113 million views in its first 24 hours, nearly 1.5 times more than the first trailer for 2023’s big screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, which came in at 75 million views.
The numbers put it above recent big hitters like Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Mufasa: The Lion King, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, on equal footing with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, and below that of Joker: Folie à Deux and Gladiator II. As a point of reference, Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine trailer tops the chart with 365 million views in 24 hours.
While viewership doesn’t necessarily translate to box office earnings, it bodes well for the sequel. Alongside iconic musical numbers like “No Good Deed” and, of course, “For Good”, the trailer also teases the arrival of Dorothy and her companions: The Tin Man, The Scarecrow, and The Cowardly Lion.
Original director Jon M. Chu returns to helm the film, picking up after the final scene in the first movie, in which Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba flies through the sky while singing the iconic “Defying Gravity”. It will cover the events in the musical’s second act, where Elphaba and Ariana Grande’s Glinda “embrace their new respective identities as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch of the North”, while facing the consequences of their previous decisions.
The leading pair is joined by returning stars Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton) as Fiyero Tigelaar, Ethan Slater as Boq Woodsman, Marissa Bode as Nessarose Thropp, Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as Madame Morrible, and Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park franchise) as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Released last year, the first Wicked film earned US$634 million worldwide after six weeks and is now the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation globally. For Good is scheduled for release on 21 November.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
