The 2026 Oscar nominations delivered one of the biggest surprises of the awards season when Wicked: For Good failed to receive a single Academy Award nomination. The shutout came just one year after the first Wicked dominated headlines with 10 Oscar nominations and became one of the biggest theatrical hits of the year.
Now, Cynthia Erivo has opened up about why she believes the sequel lost momentum with Academy voters. According to the actress, the extended modern awards campaign cycle likely hurt the film more than helped it, especially after the franchise spent nearly two straight years promoting both installments.
Long Campaign Period May Have Hurt the Movie’s Chances
As stated by Erivo herself, the lengthy campaign period during which the movie needed to be promoted probably resulted in a negative impact, as opposed to helping the movie succeed further.
“If it was a shorter stint of time, there is less potential for things to turn sour, and also there’s more energy to keep it going,” Erivo noted.
This problem is increasingly common nowadays with Hollywood movies competing in the annual award ceremony. As Wicked and its sequel were released only a year apart from each other, this meant that both films were being promoted constantly throughout nearly two years in total. At the end of the day, interest in the franchise waned significantly before the Oscar voting period.
Moreover, the sequel faced criticism regarding pacing since the adaptation of the second act of the original Broadway show had been expanded from one hour to two hours and eighteen minutes. Although the sequel made around $540 million globally and garnered some attention in the form of Golden Globes, it did not get enough recognition among other competitors to be nominated at the Oscars ceremony.
That weaker reception ultimately hurt the film’s awards momentum. Both Erivo and Ariana Grande failed to secure acting nominations despite heavy early-season campaigning, while director Jon M. Chu also missed out in the directing category.
With her career flourishing, Erivo completely stepped away from the awards circuit in the wake of losing her chance at an Oscar. She even chose to attend a theater performance in England, her one-woman stage show called Dracula.
Despite the disappointing awards outcome, Universal still considers the two-part Wicked adaptation a major commercial success. The films became one of the studio’s biggest recent franchises and firmly established Erivo and Grande as a defining modern version of Elphaba and Glinda for a new generation of audiences.
