Warning: Spoilers forward for Depraved: For GoodThe broad strokes of Depraved: For Good‘s ending are devoted to the stage musical that impressed it. In her climactic encounter with Dorothy, Elphaba levels her personal dying, enjoying into the parable that water might soften her. She runs off for a fortunately ever after with Fiyero, who she had changed into the Scarecrow earlier within the story to avoid wasting his life. The Wizard floats away on his balloon, and in his absence, the individuals now look to Glinda, who arrests Madame Morrible and is about to steer Ozinto a brighter future.
However with one, tiny element within the final moments, the film makes a change that is really fairly profound. Glinda and Elphaba have gone their separate methods, however by way of the magic of modifying, it seems as in the event that they’re connecting once more as they consider one another on the identical time. And as a snippet of “For Good,” their duet, performs, the Grimmerie opens for Glinda, glowing and seemingly flipping itself to a web page.
On the one hand, it is simple to take a look at this cynically as a intelligent set-up for a Glinda-focused, Ariana Grande-starring spinoff, or perhaps even a Depraved: Half 3. However, thematically, it is a deeply important selection that sits on the coronary heart of what Jon M. Chu’s brace of movies are actually about.
Depraved: For Good Giving Glinda Magic Makes Its Most Shifting Music Even Extra Significant
As defined in Depraved: Half 1, the Grimmerie is a strong spellbook written in a misplaced Ozian language, and even essentially the most completed magic-users can solely decipher a couple of phrases. A prophecy claimed that, sometime, an individual who might learn it might restore magic to Oz; the Wizard, who arrived from our world through sizzling air balloon, was regarded as this individual. However, in actuality, it seems to be Elphaba.
At any time when she needs to perform one thing with magic, the e-book will open itself to a spell for the job, although it could arrive on the identical level in a manner she didn’t intend. She will learn the phrases, and reciting them efficiently casts the spell, however she would not really perceive them – she speaks the incantations regardless of not realizing what she’s really saying. Elphaba is of course gifted, however the movie would not actually counsel that she inherently is aware of this language. As an alternative, it looks like the Grimmerie makes itself legible to her.
So, when the e-book opens for Glinda, the implication is that she is going to be capable to learn it now, too. Her lifelong dream to be magical is lastly coming true.
This upends all the things we have come to know about how magic works in Oz. Although controlling it may possibly include time and instruction, Madame Morrible definitely believes that one both does or doesn’t have the reward. Up till the top of Depraved: For Good, the movies appear to again her up. Even the suggestion that Elphaba’s energy comes from her being a baby of two worlds relies in this type of pondering.
That magic is as a substitute one thing an individual can develop into, and that studying the Grimmerie is one thing an individual can turn into prepared for, is a big departure – and a thematically resonant one. If Elphaba might do it not due to her parentage however due to her energy of character, then the one factor denying the Wizard and Morrible entry was that they weren’t the best individuals to wield that energy. They may have been, however they selected a darker path.
The callback to “For Good,” in the meantime, places Glinda’s newfound means within the context of the best way she has grown as an individual since assembly Elphaba. The message is evident: In Chu’s Depraved, a transformative friendship can do extra than simply change you for the higher. It might probably make you magical.
- Launch Date
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November 21, 2025
- Runtime
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137 Minutes
- Director
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Jon M. Chu
- Writers
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Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox, Gregory Maguire
- Producers
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Marc Platt, David Stone