Why Young Glinda From Wicked: For Good Looks So Familiar

Contains spoilers for "Wicked: For Good"

"Wicked: For Good" is gonna be popular at the box office this weekend, and among the many sights franchise fans will be treated to is a flashback where Glinda (Ariana Grande) remembers her childhood self, as played by Scarlett Spears. Want to know more about Spears and her background? Click the video above, in which we run down all of the highlights from her acting career so far.

In the flashback, young Galinda Upland yearns to be magical, just as she will when she grows up. When she receives a wand for her birthday she thinks she'll finally be able to harness her powers. Galinda tries to perform a magic trick for her party guests — but isn't able to conjure a spell to life. Luckily, a rainbow shows up outside her window just in the nick of time. Galinda takes credit for its appearance and her guests congratulate her. That says more about Glinda's ability to charm others — and her current status as a secretly non-magical spokeswitch for The Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) — than anything else. With all of those lies under her belt, it's no wonder there's a fan theory that suggests Glinda is actually the villain of "The Wizard of Oz." But, while Glinda's glimmer might be pure puffery, it's clear Spears definitely has star quality — as fans of one ABC soap opera have known for years now.

Scarlett Spears has a short but sweet resume. TV fans will most likely recognize her as Donna Corinthos, daughter of mob don Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Bernard) and his ex-wife Carly Spencer-Corinthos (Laura Wright) on "General Hospital." Spears has been holding down the part of Donna for three years, and continues to play the role on a recurring basis. 

Interestingly, "Wicked: For Good" isn't the first time she's been called upon to play a younger version of a grown-up character — Spears also played the child version of Dora (Samantha Lorraine) in the Paramount+ exclusive film "Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado." She showed up in the Investigation Discovery docuseries "Evil Lives Here: Shadows of Death," as a fictionalized version of a real-life crime victim named Jade. You can also spot Spears as a little girl having a tantrum in the P!nk music video "Never Gonna Not Dance Again." That's a pretty healthy roll call for someone who's only been in the acting game since 2022. Want to know more about Scarlett Spears' career? Click our all-inclusive video above. And if you'd like to know more about "Wicked: For Good," read Looper's review of the movie before heading out to see it in theaters.