Oscars 2026: Why Wicked For Good didn’t get any nominations this year?

Wicked For Good snubbed at Oscar nominations

• Wicked: For Good received zero Oscar nominations despite high expectations
• The original Wicked film earned 10 nominations and won 2 Oscars last year
• Critics gave the sequel lower scores, citing weaker performances and reviews

Did our AI summary help?

This year’s Oscar nominations left many film fans genuinely stunned, and for one major reason: Wicked: For Good failed to receive a single nomination.

The complete absence of the musical sequel from the 98th Academy Awards felt especially jarring given the extraordinary success of its predecessor just a year earlier.

At the 2025 Oscars, Wicked (2024) was a dominant presence. The film earned 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Cynthia Erivo and Best Supporting Actress for Ariana Grande, and went on to win two Oscars for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo even opened the ceremony with a live performance, cementing the film’s cultural and awards-season impact.

Against that backdrop, the fate of Wicked: For Good feels almost unreal. Announced on January 22, 2026, this year’s nominations brought their usual mix of excitement and disappointment — including Paul Mescal missing out for Hamnet and Norway’s Sentimental Value picking up two Best Supporting Actress nods.

But nothing came close to the silence surrounding Wicked: For Good, a film many assumed would comfortably land at least a few nominations.

While the sequel was never seen as a frontrunner for Best Picture, expectations were still high. Industry watchers widely predicted a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Ariana Grande, along with recognition in technical categories such as costume design, visual effects or original song. Instead, the film was entirely shut out.

The contrast with the first film only deepened the shock. The lavish return to Oz, combined with the much-praised performances of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, once made the franchise feel almost untouchable.

To fall from 10 nominations to none feels less like a minor setback and more like a sudden free fall.

Early awards-season signs suggested the sequel still had momentum. At the Golden Globes, Cynthia Erivo received a Best Actress nomination in the comedy or musical category, while Ariana Grande was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

The film also earned recognition for cinematic and box office achievement and secured two Best Original Song nominations.

Also Read: Oscars 2026: Timothée Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael B. Jordan Lead Best Actor nominations

Then came the reviews. While Wicked scored a strong 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, Wicked: For Good dropped to 66%, with critics far less forgiving. Robbie Collin’s Telegraph review bluntly stated, “Ariana Grande is painfully wooden in Wicked's irritating sequel”, while Justin Chang titled his New Yorker piece “Wicked: For Good is Very, Very Bad”.

Released on November 21, 2025, and directed by Jon M. Chu, Wicked: For Good followed Elphaba and Glinda deeper into power, fame and fracture in Oz.

The Oscar ceremony is all set to air on 15th March 2026.