The star, director Jon M. Chu, and lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz break down the pivotal Glinda moment.

Wicked: For Good set footage shows Ariana Grande’s ‘surreal’ Glinda moment: ‘It’s very special’ (exclusive)

The star, director Jon M. Chu, and lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz break down the pivotal Glinda moment.

By Patrick Gomez

Patrick Gomez is an Executive Editor at . Formerly at People magazine and The A.V. Club, the Critics Choice and Television Critics Association member has appeared on 'Today,' 'Extra!,' 'Access Hollywood,' 'E! News,' 'CNN,' and 'Nightline,' and can be seen frequently on 'Good Morning America.' Follow the Texas Native at @PatrickGomezLA wherever your media is social for all things 'For All Mankind' 'Top Chef,' and puppy related.

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December 12, 2025 12:15 p.m. ET

Ariana Grande in 'Wicked: For Good'. Credit:

Universal Pictures

As Ariana Grande's Glinda sings in "Thank Goodness," "Happy is what happens when all your dream comes true. Well, isn't it?"

"At the beginning of *Wicked: For Good*, Glinda seems to have exactly what she's always wanted — and yet she can sense the hollowness at its core," composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz says in a featurette video exclusive to **.

To further drive that point home, Schwartz conjured up a new ballad for Glinda to sing further along in the second half of the *Wicked* saga on screen: "The Girl in the Bubble."

"'The Girl in the Bubble' is such a beautiful and important narrative piece for Glinda, because that's when we see the final layer of her shielding bubble pop," Grande says in the video (below). "It is a shift that happens for her where she realizes something's gotta change."

"She questions how much courage it takes to actually be in a place of privilege and feel the discrepancies of justice done to other people," adds director Jon M. Chu. "And it all connects to this idea that we always ask ourselves in *Wicked: For Good*, which is: Who do you become when you know the truth?"

"It's a really surreal thing to be trusted with an original Stephen Schwartz song," Grande concludes, "but also to be responsible for showing the audience for the first time this very pivotal, sacred moment in Glinda's life. It's very special."

Beyond writing and performing the song, the exact placement of the new song — mixed in with all the beloved Broadway production hits — was key.

"Because it had not been field tested, it was like, 'Is it in the right place?' Do we move it a little bit?'" Chu previously told EW of placing the song right after the "March of the Witch Hunters" sequence. "There's the scene with [Michelle Yeoh's Madame] Morrible that used to come before ["Girl in the Bubble"], now we put it after, because there was something missing about that number."

Michelle Yeoh and Ariana Grande in 'Wicked: For Good'.

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Chu and Schwartz also chose to strip away the orchestration that had been written to start off the song.

"We turned off the score and watched her shut the door in silence, and it was just devastating," said Chu. "You could hear her footsteps and her dress, the clunkiness of her dress. It's a costume for the first time. In a weird way, it's almost meta. I think the audience, even though you may not be thinking of this, but it feels like an actor in a room on a set."

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