'Wicked: For Good' leans into political themes with new Cynthia Erivo song

As moviegoers return to theaters to see “Wicked: For Good,” the sequel to the 2024 Broadway adaptation about an unlikely friendship between two witches, they may be surprised by the second installment’s darker tone

As moviegoers return to theaters to see “Wicked: For Good,” the sequel to the 2024 Broadway adaptation about an unlikely friendship between two witches, they may be surprised by the second installment’s darker tone.

Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), an unfairly villainized figure in the mythical land of Oz, spends much of the new film trying to save her kingdom from a descent into authoritarianism.

In a new song by composer Stephen Schwartz called “There’s No Place Like Home,” Erivo sings of her beloved homeland, “Why do I love this place that’s never loved me?”

Schwartz wrote the song during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he and playwright Winnie Holzman were working to adapt their long-running 2003 stage musical into a two-film structure.

The song, and the musical’s storyline, reflect the complicated feelings Schwartz believes he and many other Americans have about their country in 2025.