‘Wicked: For Good’ @ SIFF Cinema Downtown

I couldn’t be happier as I count down the days to “Wicked: For Good,” the anticipated conclusion to 2024’s unstoppable behemoth.

Expanded from the blockbuster stage musical that has been running for over 20 years in New York, the West End and around the globe, itself loosely based on the Gregory Maguire book, itself loosely based on, well, you know, “Wicked” is the untold story of two Ozian witches, Elphaba and Glinda, before and during the events of “The Wizard of Oz.”

And despite a couple decades in development hell, a rotating list of talent in front of and behind the cameras and a long list of many, many musical theater screen adaptation that have sh*t the bed in any number of ways, last fall’s movie (FKA “Part I”) came out and was…ravishing? Excellent? Made me cry waterfalls each and every time I saw it? (*cough* 12 times in theaters.) Even the weird decision to expand it into two films — one film per act — turned out to give the story the emotional weight it deserved.

“Part I” made one hell of a cultural splash, earned three-quarters of a billion dollars worldwide and won two Oscars out of its ten nominations, so consider this a victory lap for composer Stephen Schwartz (“Godspell,” “Pippin”), screenwriter Winnie Holzman (“My So-Called Life”) and John M. Chu (“In the Heights;” underrated and I will fight you in the streets to defend it). They deserve it.

And you deserve to witness what happens next, as green-hued outcast Elphaba and perfect, popular Glinda, former Shiz University roommates and best friends, are now forced to opposite sides of deadly political machinations and must contend with a new normal. And what about that homesick young girl from Kansas and her menagerie of anthropomorphized wanderers?

Come make this the biggest movie of the year. You’ll be changed for the better, and for good.