If you follow the yellow brick road long enough — all the way to November of this year — you’ll find out who is playing Dorothy in the second part of the Wicked film saga, Wicked: For Good. But we do know one thing: it isn’t Taylor Swift.
The first official trailer for For Good recently dropped, and while Dorothy can be seen from behind in the sneak peek, there aren’t any telling visuals that give away who will be playing the coveted role. But that didn’t stop social media from spreading the rumor that Swift will be stepping into the character’s shoes, even on parody update accounts who were seen sharing seemingly AI-generated images of the singer in the Dorothy costume claiming they were from the film.
Considering how busy Swift was with her Eras tour alone while both parts of Wicked shot, it seems pretty clear that she will not be featured in the second film. However, there has been a clear-cut favorite for Dorothy for quite some time now: Abigail star Alisha Weir.
The 15-year-old has already starred in the excellent vampire film, but before that, she was featured in Matilda the Musical and Wicked Little Letters. She’s proven herself to be an exciting upcoming talent, so that alone makes her a shoe-in for Dorothy. But after Weir was photographed on the green carpet at the Wicked premiere back in November — and wearing silver shoes, which are the original color of the ruby slippers, to boot — speculation began. She’s been the favorite to play the role since.
Weir has talked around the speculation in several interviews, but she’s never outright said no about playing the character. For his part, director Jon M. Chu previously revealed that Dorothy will have a much bigger role in For Good than the character does in the Wicked stage musical.
“I won’t say whether she’s a character, necessarily, in movie two,” he explained to Huffington Post UK in November 2024. “There’s a part of me that wants everyone’s Dorothy to be whatever Dorothy they want. And yet, there is interaction and some crossover. So I’ll leave that up to Part Two.”
Here’s the official blurb:
Directed once again by award-winning director Jon M. Chu and starring the spectacular returning cast, led by Academy Award nominated superstars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, the final chapter of the untold story of the witches of Oz begins with Elphaba and Glinda estranged and living with the consequences of their choices.
Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), now demonized as The Wicked Witch of the West, lives in exile, hidden within the Ozian forest while continuing her fight for the freedom of Oz’s silenced Animals and desperately trying to expose the truth she knows about The Wizard (Jeff Goldblum).
Glinda, meanwhile, has become the glamorous symbol of Goodness for all of Oz, living at the palace in Emerald City and reveling in the perks of fame and popularity. Under the instruction of Madame Morrible (Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh), Glinda is deployed to serve as an effervescent comfort to Oz, reassuring the masses that all is well under the rule of The Wizard.
As Glinda’s stardom expands and she prepares to marry Prince Fiyero (Olivier award winner and Emmy and SAG nominee Jonathan Bailey) in a spectacular Ozian wedding, she is haunted by her separation from Elphaba. She attempts to broker a conciliation between Elphaba and The Wizard, but those efforts will fail, driving Elphaba and Glinda only further apart. The aftershocks will transform Boq (Tony nominee Ethan Slater) and Fiyero forever, and threaten the safety of Elphaba’s sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), when a girl from Kansas comes crashing into all their lives.
As an angry mob rises against the Wicked Witch, Glinda and Elphaba will need to come together one final time. With their singular friendship now the fulcrum of their futures, they will need to truly see each other, with honesty and empathy, if they are to change themselves, and all of Oz, for good.
Wicked: For Good flies into theaters on November 21, 2025.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
