Depraved: For Good – Director Jon M. Chu Explains New Songs for Glinda and Elphaba

Director Jon M. Chu has defined why Depraved: For Good will embrace two brand-new songs for each Glinda and Elphaba, a departure from the Broadway musical adaptation.

Talking at Deadline‘s Contenders London occasion, the director stated that his connection to Depraved goes again to its early days, recalling seeing one of many musical’s first performances. He revealed that he is all the time most well-liked the second act of the musical, calling it the emotional core of the story.

When discussing the brand new songs, Chu defined that he and his workforce expanded on these themes of the stage musical, hoping to seize the identical weight on display screen. Learn his feedback under:

For me, what I believe the second half wanted was to know extra about these particular person girls’s experiences. How lonely is it while you make a selection like that and you must stand as much as energy and you’re feeling such as you’re the one one doing it. That’s a really heavy, lonely expertise…

And what occurs while you’re somebody like Glinda who has this bubble of safety, the place you don’t ever need to cope with the reality in the event you don’t wish to. Can you pop your bubble of privilege? To me, these had been the larger questions of the Depraved saga.

Chu went on to elucidate that the choice to incorporate new songs was not about scale or spectacle, however reasonably about emotional connection. For the director, Depraved: For Good wanted to discover Glinda and Elphaba’s internal lives in ways in which dialogue alone could not. In his personal phrases:

We wanted extra songs, as a result of we would have liked extra avenues into that mindset. Musicals are nice as a result of it’s not about being greater, it’s about going deeper into these characters and minds and what they’re going by. So we now have new songs that enable us to witness how they undergo these ideas, and the viewers can expertise.

The 2 new songs are “No Place Like Residence” carried out by Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba, and “The Woman within the Bubble”, sung by Ariana Grande’s Glinda. These would be the first musical additions to the Depraved movies that weren’t part of the unique Broadway rating.

The sequel picks up the place Depraved: Half One left off and can adapt the second act of the 2003 stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman. Depraved: For Good will discover the aftermath of Elphaba’s transformation into the Depraved Witch of the West and Glinda’s rise to energy, and the way their friendship is reshaped by the political chaos of Oz.

Within the second act, Glinda and Elphaba face not solely the exterior battle in Oz, but additionally internal struggles about identification, loyalty, and justice. Chu sees the brand new songs as a key device when portraying the character’s internal turmoil. By giving every lead model new musical moments, Chu is letting the screenplay and songs work collectively, and in doing so, the movie provides every witch a fuller voice as they’re confronted with not possible selections.

Anticipation for Depraved: For Good is already reaching record-breaking heights. Fandango revealed that Depraved: For Good has had essentially the most first-day ticket pre-sales of any film of 2025, surpassing Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Fort, Taylor Swift: The Official Launch Get together of a Showgirl, and Superman.

The primary movie opened simply earlier than Thanksgiving 2024, incomes $112.5 million in its debut and grossing $756.4 million worldwide, making Depraved the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation ever.

Depraved: For Good hits theaters on November 21.