Wicked: Part One theory completely changes what we know about Part Two

Warning: Massive spoilers for the Wicked stage show and Wicked: Part One ahead

Cynthia Erivo is hopping on her broomstick and Ariana Grande is stepping inside her bubble as the pair take flight as Elphaba and Glinda in Jon M. Chu’s Wicked. The adaptation of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s stage show is defying box office expectations, which is good news for Wicked: Part Two’s release in 2025. The second act of Wicked is a good deal darker than the first, as the second movie will be darker than Part One. And director John Chu is already laying the groundwork.

Chu already switched things up from the stage adaptation by featuring (an uncredited appearance by) Dorothy Gale in the movie’s opening, as well as expanding the Wiz-o-Mania show in the Emerald City with some unexpected cameos and a stretching out the end of “Defying Gravity” with an appearance from Young Elphaba. As he's shown a willingness to thinker with the source material, it’s clear Part Two won’t be a carbon copy of its Broadway sibling.

Below, we'll get into some of the specifics. Beware MAJOR SPOILERS for the rest of Wicked below!

Who is Wicked: Part One’s mystery rider?

Both the stage show and the movie open with the song “No One Mourns the Wicked,” which takes place in the immediate aftermath of Elphaba's death. But the movie expands on those moments, opening with an image of Elphaba’s hat sitting in a puddle of water at Kiamo Ko, the fortress where Dorothy throws a bunch of water on her in The Wizard of Oz. As the camera pans out, a cloaked figure is seen riding away from the castle, followed by a sweeping shot that shows Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road with the Cowardly Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow.

In Act 2 of the play, we learn that Boq (Ethan Slater) and Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) become the Tin Man and the Scarecrow respectively. Given Fiyero’s feelings for Elphaba, it would make sense that he’s the distraught rider fleeing the castle following her demise. The problem is, if Fiyero is the Scarecrow on the Yellow Brick Road, he can’t also be the figure on horseback.

So who is that mysterious rider? Fans on Reddit came up with a clever theory that flips everything on its head.

At the end of the Wicked stage show, we learn that Elphaba survives her encounter with Dorothy. The idea that witches will melt if water is thrown on them was just a rumor that got out of hand. When Dorothy throws a bucket of water on Elphaba (as depicted in the iconic “I’m melting scene” from 1939’s The Wizard of Oz), Elphaba slips into a trapdoor. The musical ends with Scarecrow Fiyero returning to Kiamo Ko, reuniting with Elphaba, and the pair leaving Oz. Assuming Wicked: Part Two sticks close to this, Elphaba could meet with Scarecrow Fiyero after he’s accompanied Dorothy back to the Emerald City to see the Wizard. We could get a beautiful closing shot of the lovers walking into the sunset on the Yellow Brick Road. Perhaps the rider is Elphaba fleeing the castle after enough time has passed.

There are other options for who the rider is: perhaps it's Glinda. Temember that Glinda is also at Kiamo Ko toward the end of the musical. After Elphaba makes Glinda promise not to clear her name, she gives her the Grimmerie spellbook and sends her to the Emerald City to confront the Wizard. This gives Glinda her own emotional showdown where she reveals Elphaba was the Wizard’s daughter and then forces him to leave Oz. The stage show never makes it clear whether Glinda knows that Elphaba lives to fly another day. Although it would be more heartbreaking if she thinks her best friend and unrequited love interest have both perished, it would be equally poignant if Glinda knows the truth but is forced to keep Elphaba’s survival a secret.

Finally, there’s the wild option that the rider is a character who isn’t even in the musical. Wicked (the musical) is loosely based on Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West from 1995. And that novel is (loosely) based on Frank L. Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from 1890, its sequel novels, and the 1939 film. If you think Wicked the musical is depressing, that’s nothing compared to Maguire’s novel. In that book, Fiyero is brutally murdered and his death turns Elphaba into a mute. They also have a son named Liir. Some fans think it could be Liir on the horse, although we don't see the movie straying that far from the musical, which cuts that character.

It remains to be seen where Chu takes the story in Wicked: Part Two, but the rider being Elphaba makes the most sense. Adding fuel to the fire that she’s this mystery character, note how the rider is accompanied by the flying monkeys. Finally, there’s a shot from the trailer that presumably comes in Part Two, showing what looks like the same rider heading in the direction of the Emerald City. It might seem foolish for Elphaba to head there, but imagine the ultimate showdown with daddy dearest where both she and Glinda banish the (not-so) Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum).

With a year left the theorize, Wicked’s hidden horseman is one of the movie’s many dangling questions.

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