Gregory Maguire is returning to Oz once again, this time to give Glinda the Good Witch a full origin story. The author of the 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” will publish a new prequel, “Galinda: A Charmed Childhood,” on September 29, 2026, through HarperCollins, extending a book franchise that now spans three decades and two major film adaptations.
The novel follows Galinda Upland before she shortens her name and arrives at Shiz University. Publisher materials describe her as the youngest of four children in a high-born family whose fortunes are slipping, a girl “both pampered and ignored” whose talent for dance pulls her toward district competitions while tension grows around her father’s controversial business tactics. Those threads set up the social world that later shapes the polished, politically savvy Glinda audiences know from stage and screen.
“Galinda” is billed as a sister volume to “Elphie: A Wicked Childhood,” Maguire’s 2025 prequel about Elphaba’s early years. Together, the two “childhood” novels sit alongside the original Wicked tetralogy and the later “Another Day” trilogy, giving Maguire a sprawling sequence that runs from the witches’ childhoods through the lives of their descendants.
The announcement lands as the Wicked screen franchise hits a peak. The Broadway musical, which opened in 2003, has already inspired Universal’s two-part film, with Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda. Maguire has said he cried through the first film’s Hollywood premiere and described himself as “enormously proud” of the adaptation and the four actresses who have played his witches, a sign of how closely the author now tracks the franchise’s on-screen life.
Industry observers see “Galinda” as fresh fuel for that pipeline. Producer Stephen Enloe told Newsweek that Maguire’s Oz novels feel “turn-key, ready for adaptation” for an audience that already knows the world, while content executive Alessandra Ferreri argued that studios need to study what drives fans’ emotional ties to Glinda and Elphaba before greenlighting new projects. Universal marketing chief Michael Moses has said the studio feels a responsibility to keep exploring Oz after the success of the recent films, even as concrete plans remain under wraps.
Early reaction from fans on social media, Reddit threads and niche Wicked forums centers on seeing Galinda’s childhood fleshed out on the page after a brief glimpse of her younger self in “Wicked: For Good.” With preorders already live and special editions listed by major retailers, “Galinda: A Charmed Childhood” positions Maguire’s books as both publishing events and a development well for any future screen trips back to Oz.
