Wicked fans, get ready to go back to Oz sooner than you expected.
Fans of the movie musical are waiting breathlessly for part 2, Wicked: For Good, to hit theaters on November 21, 2025. But if that’s too long to wait for more magic, never fear: There’s more Wicked content coming our way.
Author Gregory Maguire is releasing a brand-new Wicked prequel, 14 years after finishing his series The Wicked Years, which the Wicked musical and movie are based on. The new book is titled Elphie: A Wicked Childhood, and it releases on March 25th, 2025. It follows Elphaba through her childhood and is described as a "riveting coming-of-age story of a very peculiar and relatable young girl."
Like Glinda, we’re calling it now: We think this book will be popular.
From the books and the Broadway musical, we know how Elphaba becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, the misunderstandings and tragedies that create her reputation. But how did Elphaba grow into the beloved character we know from book, stage and screen? The new prequel explores these questions and more. It will focus on the childhood of little Elphie and the circumstances that shaped her to become the strong but standoffish woman we meet in Wicked.
The book description explains, “Young Elphie is shaped and molded by the behaviors of her promiscuous mother, Melena, and her pious father, Frex. She suffers ordinary childhood jealousies when her sister, saintly Nessarose, and brother, junior felon Shell, arrive.”
The book will also detail her first encounter with anti-Animal discrimination, a major plot line in Wicked, as she is helped by Dwarf Bears and haunted by a Monkey. These events will lay the groundwork for who Elphie becomes, and her response to the injustice shown against talking Animals in Wicked.
Similarly, the prequel will also follow Elphaba as "she thrashes through her first bruising attempts at friendship, a possible lifeline from her tricky family life"— a relationship that surely sets the stage later for Elphaba and Glinda to change each other for good.
From her childhood up to the very doors of Shiz, Elphie will tell it all — and we’re sure there will be quite a few surprises along the way.
“Elphie is destined to be a witch,” the book description concludes. “She bears the markings from childhood — most evidently in her green skin but more obscurely and profoundly in her cunning and perhaps amoral behaviors, as she seeks to make do, to slip by, to sneak out, to endure, and to aspire.”
For every question you’ve had about Elphaba or the world of Oz, Elphie offers a new glimpse into the beloved story like never before.
Sarah Vincent (she/her) covers the latest and greatest in books and all things pets for Good Housekeeping. She double majored in Creative Writing and Criminal Justice at Loyola University Chicago, where she sat in the front row for every basketball game. In her spare time, she loves cooking, crafting, studying Japanese, and, of course, reading.
