Is this Wicked: Part II’s Dorothy?

Wicked continued to defy gravity at the box office (yuk yuk yuk yuk) over the long Thanksgiving weekend, with its current $262 million domestic take already making it the highest-grossing film based on a Broadway musical of all time in the United States. (The worldwide crown still goes to Mamma Mia!) There’s no question that Wicked will earn a sequel — as anyone who has caught the film already knows, the movie’s full title is actually Wicked: Part I, and Part II is in the can, set for release on Nov. 21, 2025. 

The big difference between Part I and Part II? In the second movie, Dorothy will show up more meaningfully than she did in Part I. And the question of casting for what could very well be an offscreen role might carry fans through the next year of anticipation.

The decision to split Wicked into two movies at its natural act break was polarizing, but for many (including the theater kid writing this), ultimately satisfying. It left every beat of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s original show intact, with room to play for choreography-brained In the Heights director Jon M. Chu. Still, there is a question of how Wicked 2 — with fewer songs and a darker edge — might feel as satisfying as its first half.

Schwartz has said over the years that he would write new songs for Wicked 2, which finds Elphaba owning her title as the Wicked Witch of the West and eventually having her fate-filled meeting with Dorothy Gale. Dorothy doesn’t actually play a role in the Broadway show (she only appears in shadow) but she could in the film, if Chu doesn’t mind drawing inevitable comparisons to Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. 

Yes, there are other ways to expand Wicked’s original Act II that avoid echoing the 1939 film, especially if Chu and Schwartz want more for their powerhouse stars, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, to sing through. But a recent appearance by young actor Alisha Weir at the Wicked premiere’s green carpet has fully turned Broadway nuts into Marvel post-credit-savoring fans. Is Weir, who broke out in Netflix’s Matilda the Musical, but might be better known as the terrifying vampire kid in this year’s Abigail, Wicked: Part II’s Dorothy Gale? This single photo is the only evidence:

Dorothy does actually appear in Wicked: Part I for a hot second at the beginning: A CG version of the character is seen from the back, skipping down the yellow brick road alongside the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion. But in the Broadway show, all the known characters are in Dorothy’s orbit as she drops into Oz to embark on her adventure, and in the film, it’s easy to imagine her taking corporeal form. Weir would be an amazing and logical choice: Matilda the Musical is an underrated adaptation in which she truly rocks, and she’s a known entity for Universal Pictures, which released Abigail. Maybe she attended the Wicked premiere as a fan of the show. But if you’re in the casting range for Dorothy and showing up in silver shoes (the original color of Dorothy’s ruby slippers in L. Frank Baum’s book), you’re either hiding a secret or out to activate internet brain worms. Or both?

Currently, Universal and Chu have not announced any casting for Dorothy in Wicked: Part II. The sequel was shot back-to-back with Part I, so if Weir is in Part II, she managed to escape all the paparazzi who spent weeks photographing Grande on the set in costume. Is the Dorothy casting the best-kept secret in Hollywood, or just the kind of rampant speculation a mega-blockbuster provokes? We’ll find out next year.