Netflix’s newest YA fantasy movie, The School for Good and Evil, has only just been released, and fans are already begging the streaming service for a sequel.
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The new Netflix fantasy film, The School for Good and Evil, is based on the book of the same name, which was written by the author Soman Chainani. It follows the story of two best friends, Sophie, who dreams of being a princess and is obsessed with fairytales, and Agatha, an outcast of their village Gavaldon. The two of them have shared a deep friendship since childhood.
Sophie is desperate to break away from her boring life in the village, so after finding out about the School for Good and Evil, a magical school for future fairy-tale heroes and villains, she writes a letter to the School for Good, hoping to be admitted as a princess. Both girls are picked up and dropped off at the School for Good and Evil, but to Sophie’s dismay, she has been placed at the School for Evil.
The film’s script was written by David Magee and brought to life by the stellar cast composed of a number of top actors and the director Paul Feig. Despite the film’s negative reviews, The School for Good and Evil still did quite well and became the most-viewed movie on Netflix.
Let’s take a look at the fantasy movie and where Netflix’s The School for Good and Evil 2 will take the characters next.
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Who Are the Good & Evil Characters
Main Fairy-Tale Characters
Agatha
Agatha is played by Sofia Wylie (who starred in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series) and is one of the main characters of the story. She is described as having jet-black hair and bug eyes and is an outcast in her village of Gavaldon because the people believed that her mother was a witch, so she must therefore have evil in her blood. She is the more cynical one in the best friend duo and doesn’t particularly care about beauty or vanity.
When she gets dropped off at the School for Good, she has a hard time believing that it was where she was meant to be (because of what she’s been told by the people in her village her entire life) and struggles with the impossible standards that she is taught to reach. Throughout the film, she slowly learns to accept that she does truly belong in the School for Good and even manages to win over Tedros in the process.
She is half the reason the school is saved and manages to convince the schools to change the way things are done in the fantasy world and let good and evil co-exist in harmony.
Sophie
In Netflix’s The School for Good and Evil, Sophie is played by Sophia Anne Caruso, and she is the second main character of the story. She has long blonde hair and is described to be a selfish and vain person who had originally befriended Agatha as a good deed to further progress her journey to become a princess.
When she is admitted to the school for Evil, insisting that some sort of mistake had been made because there was no way that she was suited for anything other than a princess.
In her quest to be admitted into the School of Good, she seduces Prince Tedros since it is impossible for Evers (students of the School for Good) and Nevers (students of the School for Evil) to fall in love, believing that their being together will be the proof she needs to get into the School for Good.
When she fails to prove herself, she fully embraces her evil nature and brings the school into ruin before realising the error of her ways and sacrificing herself to help Agatha save the school.
Tedros
Tedros is played by Jamie Flatters and is the love interest of Sophie and then Agatha. He is the son of King Arthur and Queen Guinnevere of Camelot and is the model prince of the School for Good. When he meets Sophie, he becomes just as convinced as her that she has been admitted to the wrong school and does what he can to help her switch so that they can live happily ever after.
When Sophie doesn’t try to defend him during the Trial by Tale (a competition in which the best students compete to see who can last against monster attacks and other students – in the movie it is used as a way for Tedros and Sophie to prove their love to one another) and he is instead saved by Agatha he no longer believes that Sophie is meant to be at the School for Good.
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Teachers
Lady Lesso
Lady Lesso is played by Charlize Theron and is the Dean of the School for Evil. She is a witch mentor to Sophie and the best friend of Professor Dovey. She is shown to be intimidating but can be kind and compassionate when she wants to be.
Professor Clarissa Dovey
Professor Dovey is played by Kerry Washington and is the Dean of the School for Good. She is the fairy godmother of both Cinderella and Agatha. She has a soft spot for Agatha and helps the young girl realise her true worth.
Professor Emma Anemone
Professor Anemone is played by Michelle Yeoh and is the School for Good’s Beautification teacher. At the beginning of the film, she and Agatha don’t get along too well, because Agatha has an intense dislike for vanity and doesn’t particularly care about the way she looks.
The School Master
In Netflix’s The School for Good and Evil, The School Master is played by Laurence Fishburne. He is a very mysterious man in the story who wears a silver mask to hide his face. He resides in a tower between the two schools, locked away from everyone, while spending almost all his time with the Storian, a powerful ancient artefact that writes all the stories of the Endless Woods (the fairytale realm).
He makes sure to keep the balance between good and evil and is essentially immortal.
Professor Bilous Manley
Professor Manley is played by Mark Heap and is the School for Evil’s Uglification teacher. He is a very short-tempered man that takes pleasure in punishing his students.
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Other
The Storian
The Storian is the narrator of Sophie and Agatha’s story, voiced by Cate Blanchett. It is an ancient pen-like artefact that spends its time writing the fairy tales of the Nevers and Evers of the School for Good and Evil.
Rafal
Rafal is played by Kit Young and is the antagonist of the story. He was the brother of the Schoolmaster that took on his identity after killing him in a duel and had been lying in wait for his true love so the two of them could cause chaos together. He manipulates Sophie throughout the story and uses her to destroy the School for Good and Evil so he can tip the balance and create a school just for evil.
Hester
Hester is played by Freya Theodora Parks and is a coven leader at the School for Evil. As the movie progresses and Sophie begins to turn, the two become friends.
Anadil and Dot
Anadil and Dot are played by Demi-Isaac Oviawe and Kaitlyn Akinpelumi, respectively. They are both members of Hester’s coven at the School for Evil.
Reena and Millicent
Reena and Millicent are played by Briony Scarlet and Rose Graham, respectively. Both girls are students of the School of Good, and Millicent is the great-granddaughter of Sleeping Beauty.
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The School for Good and Evil Ending Explained
At the end of Netflix’s The School for Good and Evil, Sophie has begun to feel incredibly frustrated with the way things have played out for her and begins to embrace the fact that she is evil after her every attempt to prove otherwise has failed miserably. It comes to a head after she fails the Trial by Tale, and her chance of ever becoming a princess is pushed further and further away. She is visited by the spirit of the school master’s dead brother, Rafal, and he convinces her that Agatha (who had interrupted the trial and been the one to defend Tedros) is her true enemy.
Feeling incredibly betrayed by her best friend, Sophie goes to the Evers Ball and, after taking care of the professors with blood magic, manages to trick the students of the School of Good into attacking the students of the School of Evil, something that goes against everything the School of Good stands for. Evil is the one that is supposed to attack, while good defends itself from whatever evil throws at it. This attack begins to destroy the balance between good and evil, and the Never and Evers switch sides. Chaos breaks out in a violent battle.
As chaos ensues over the school, Sophie transforms into a Raven and flies for the School Master tower to exact her final revenge upon him, only to discover that the School Master was Rafal all along. He reveals that he’s been tipping the scales in evil’s favour for years so that he could finally rule the world and declares that he is Sophie’s true love and that the two of them are meant to rule together. They two share a kiss that begins to destroy both schools, and Sophie realises her mistake far too late.
Agatha rushes in at the last second and takes on Rafal herself. During their fight, he goes to stab her with the Storian, but at a pivotal plot point that proves what Sophie has always believed about herself, she jumps in front of the attack, saving Agatha and giving her the chance she needs to kill Rafal and stop his plans. Sophie’s sacrifice undoes Rafal’s spell, but it costs her her life. As Sophie dies in her best friend’s arms, Agatha cries over her body, kissing her as a goodbye. The kiss is seen as an act of true love, and Sophie is revived.
The teachers are restored from Sophie’s blood magic, and the two schools are united, realising because of Sophie and Agatha that it is possible for good and evil to exist in harmony together. After all the excitement, the girls decide to return to their village in the normal world, something that Agatha had been wanting since they first arrived, through a portal to Gavaldon.
Tedros tries to convince Agatha to stay with him as his true love but to no avail. She kisses him goodbye, and the two girls return to real life, where everything settles back to normal, and they live happily ever after. Or so it seems.
In the final scene of Netflix’s The School for Good and Evil, we see one of Tedros’ arrows pierce through the veil between the two worlds, accompanied by the word, “I need you, Agatha.” The arrow is closely followed by a dagger that flies through the veil just after Tedros’ arrow and splits it in two. We then hear the ominous voice of the Storian, “This was only the beginning.” This leaves viewers on a cliffhanger and implies that there will be way more to come from Agatha and Sophie’s story. Given that there are six books this is definitely something that will hold true.
Why Would Tedros call for Agatha?
On the one hand, it could just be him wanting his true love to return to him, but fans of the books know that there is a much darker reason she is being called back. All is not well in the fairy tale world with an enchanted school that was left behind by Agatha and Sophie, and the two girls may have to make their way back to the School of Good and Evil.
Who did the Dagger Belong To?
It clearly has some negative connotations for the future of the story. Viewers who had been paying attention will recognise the dagger from when it was wielded by the School Master earlier in the movie. Either Agatha didn’t actually manage to kill him (which, given that it is a fairy tale world, is not a very far-fetched theory), or someone else could be wielding the dagger and carrying on his legacy.
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What Can We Expect in The School for Good and Evil 2
In the second book, The School for Good and Evil: A World Without Princes, we see that unlikely friendships have been formed between witches and princesses who were inspired by the story of the true love that Sophie and Agatha shared, and many of them decided that they no longer need boys in their lives, as they were perfectly content with the friendships and bonds they had formed with each other. A lot of them began to think of the boys less as saviours and more as beasts.
If The School for Good and Evil 2 chooses to stick as close to the plot of the second book as possible, we will see Agatha and Sophie, who have begun to despise their lives in Gavaldon (especially Agatha, who missed Tedros and wishes that her story had had a different ending) return to the fairy tale world to find that the School of Good and Evil had once again been divided into separate schools, with the School for Good now converted into the School for Girls and all the boy having been expelled by an unseen evil force and banished to the School of Evil.
There are a couple of loose ends from the first movie that hasn’t quite been tied off yet, such as the new magical powers that Sophie and Agatha had both discovered, as well as the relationship that had begun to blossom between Prince Tedros and Agatha.
We’re going to see Agatha and Sophie’s strong friendship put to the test once again in The School for Good and Evil 2 as Agatha tries to navigate her relationship with Tedros while also still devoting time to her best friend. Book fans know that Sophie starts to struggle with her evil nature again as the girl’s friendship takes a bit of a hit (because of Tedros and every failed attempt Sophie makes to keep Agatha away from him) and she, feeling betrayed by her best friend decides to side with the one person she feels has never abandoned her no matter.
We’ll probably also be introduced to Evelyn Sader, who acts as the dean for the School of Girls and is liked by neither Professor Dovey nor Lady Lesso. In the books, she’s the one who reveals to Sophie that her wish to see her dead mother again is what brought the girls back to school. In what is assumed to be an act of compassion, she conjures what appears to be the ghost of Sophie’s mother so that she can say one last goodbye, but ends up actually being the ghost of the School Master, who is revived through the true love’s kiss that was meant for Sophie’s mother.
There’s a very good chance that we’re going to watch Sophie, in her anger towards Agatha, take over the school with the help of the School Master and banish Agatha back to Gavaldon before the two of them begin to convert the titular school into a combines School for Evil, tipping the balance of the fairy-tale world once again in the favour of evil.
The story of Sophie and Agatha in Netflix’s The School for Good and Evil is one that challenges the idea of things being purely good or evil and instead pushes the idea that the world is really just different shades of grey. You can see this challenge being issued through every character, and it has made a lot of fans excited for the next film.
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Netflix’s glittering adaptation of Soman Chainani’s The School for Good and Evil book series provides an ideal platform for director Paul Feig to showcase his expertise in agile storytelling, visually opulent aesthetics, emotionally-driven narrative, and what could be deemed his most triumphant utilization of visuals.
The cast includes Sophia Anne Caruso, Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Yeoh, Kit Young, Peter Serafinowicz, Rob Delaney, Mark Heap, Patti LuPone, Rachel Bloom, Cate Blanchett, Kerry Washington, and Charlize Theron.