How 'Wicked: Part Two' Will Be Different From the Broadway Musical, According to Nessarose Actress Marissa Bode
Marissa Bode is teasing differing plot points of the second Wicked movie.
The 24-year-old star, who plays Nessarose in the movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, spoke about Wicked: Part Two, which is out in theaters November 26, 2025, during an interview with People.
“One of the first conversations I had with Jon,” she said, was about a pivotal scene in the show’s second act.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
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In the musical, the jeweled silver slippers Nessarose inherited from her mother contains a magic that enables the wearer to stand and walk. When she realizes Elphaba and her Grimmerie spellbook can affect her disability, she begs her sister to do so.
“I wasn’t there for the actual script change,” Marissa said, adding that director Jon M. Chu said: “‘Hey, we changed this part in this way just so that it felt less like a fixing moment.’”
Rather than Nessarose “pleading for a disability to be fixed,” Marissa explains that the movie is “just focusing on the magic in general and the magic of the story.”
“And that’s all I can say, I think!” she added.
Since the musical’s Broadway debut in 2003, Nessarose has never been played by an authentically disabled actress.
“I know there’s a way to make, maybe not everything, but a hell of a lot of things accessible if you really want to, and if you really actually ask the right questions to disabled people,” she explained of taking on the role as a disabled actress, and representation in media.
“Representation is not the only thing that will save us as disabled people. We need community. We need non-disabled people to make their spaces accessible.”
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