- Culture
- Books
- News
New book will serve as sister volume to ‘Elphie: A Wicked Childhood’
Shahana YasminMonday 01 December 2025 07:51 GMTComments
CloseWicked: For Good trailer
Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email
Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter
Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter
Email*SIGN UPI would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice
Wicked author Gregory Maguire is writing a new book in the series based on Glinda, according to Harper Collins.
A statement on the publisher’s website says that Galinda: A Charmed Childhood will focus on the “pink-clad, effervescent” Galinda Upland, who later becomes Glinda the Good. It is a sister volume to Elphie: A Wicked Childhood, which was released earlier this year.
Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the first in the series, is focused on Elphaba Thropp, who later becomes the Wicked Witch of the West.
The book offers a sympathetic take on Elphaba, first introduced in the 1900 L Frank Baum novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a villainous character, and explores the nature of evil itself.
According to the synopsis of the new book, Galinda grows up as the youngest of four children in a once-noble but “down on their luck” family where she’s “both pampered and ignored”.
The book, set for release in September 2026, will follow her childhood, set against social and economic tensions before she heads to the Shiz University and becomes Elphaba’s best friend.
She adopts the spelling “Glinda” in Wicked in a show of solidarity with her professor, Dr Dillamond, who repeatedly mispronounces her name.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in ‘Wicked: For Good’ (Universal Pictures)The book is available for pre-order and the publisher’s website says that a limited edition “hardcover featuring stenciled edges, designed endpapers” is also on offer.
The announcement of the prequel comes soon after the release of the film adaptation of the Wicked saga, starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Galinda.
The movies, Wicked and Wicked: For Good, released in 2024 and 2025, respectively, are in turn based on the award-winning 2003 Broadway musical adaptation Wicked featuring Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda.
The movies, directed by John M Chu and also starring Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater, Jeff Goldblum, and Marissa Bode, have made $759m and almost $400m at the box office already. Critics were somewhat mixed in their opinions about the last chapter, but audiences weren’t: an overwhelming 83 per cent of audiences said it was one they would “definitely recommend” to friends.
In a two-star write-up, The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey wrote of Wicked: For Good: “If your complaint about last year’s Wicked was that it was so oddly lit that you could barely see what was going on, then fear not – in Wicked: For Good, you won’t mind so much, because there’s so little to look at. Here you’ll find no gallivanting between the whimsical towers of Shiz University, no rambunctious dance breaks, no Ariana Grande swinging from a chandelier.”
Earlier in November, Universal’s chief marketing officer Michael Moses told Vulture: “Because of Wicked’s success but also the fanship, we have almost a responsibility to figure out how we can continue in this universe.”
The original Wicked series comes with several sequels following other characters and what happens to the land of Oz.
Galinda: A Charmed Childhood hits bookstores on 29 September 2026.
More about
WickedHarper CollinsAriana GrandeCynthia ErivoJoin our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments
