If you’ve watched the first part of the Wicked movie, you’re likely waiting in anticipation for the second part to arrive in theaters in 2025. While there’s a lot to look forward to in Wicked: For Good, you may have also heard through the grapevine that a certain character, ahem Elphaba ahem, may lose her life in the end. But does that really happen? Well, the answer is both yes and no.
Does Elphaba really die in Wicked?
No, Elphaba doesn’t die. In the second act of the Broadway musical, Elphaba fakes her death when a mob of Oz citizens chase Elphaba and Dorothy throws a bucket of water on her, melting her and leaving only her hat and the bottle of green elixir that belonged to her mother. The final moments of the musical reveal that Elphaba is still alive when Fiyero, who is now a scarecrow, arrives at Kiamo Ko Castle and Elphaba emerges from a trap door, revealing that she had faked her death.
The musical ends with Elphaba and Fiyero leaving Oz together as Glinda seemingly lies and informs the citizens of Oz that Elphaba is dead in order to protect her friend’s secret. While Elphaba doesn’t die in the Wicked Broadway musical (and presumably the movie), she is killed in the Wicked book. In the book, Dorothy throws a bucket of water on Elphaba in an attempt to save her when Elphaba accidentally sets herself on fire when she waves her burning broom in the air and the sparks catch on her black dress and cape, setting her ablaze.
To put out the fire, Dorothy takes a bucket of rain water and throws it on Elphaba. While the water puts out the flames, it also kills Elphaba as she melts away in front of Dorothy’s eyes. The scene ends with a description of the Goddess of Gifts reaching into the fire and water and pulling out Elphaba’s soul as she passes on. The book ends with confirmation that there was no happy ending for Elphaba as no one mourns the wicked and the citizens of Oz celebrate her death.
“And of the Witch? In the life of a Witch, there is no ‘after’ in the ‘ever after’ of a Witch there is no ‘happily;’ in the story of a Witch, there is no afterword. Of that part that is beyond the life story, beyond the story of the life, there is – alas, or perhaps thank mercy – no telling. She was dead, dead, and gone, and all that was left of her was the carapace of her reputation for malice,” author Gregory Maguire writes.
Wicked streams on Peacock.
