Spoiler Warning: The School of Good and Evil
Netflix’s original movie The school for good and evil tells the story of two friends who become part of a magical fairytale world. Sophie is dissatisfied with her life in Gavaldon and longs for something better than her current circumstances. Her best friend Agatha, on the other hand, is reluctant to leave Gavaldon because she has a responsibility to her mother to care for and protect her. But Sophie makes a wish and they are transported together to another world where there are two schools, one for heroes and one for villains, also known as the School for Good and the School for Evil.
Sophie is dropped off at the School for Evil, contrary to where she thinks she belongs, while Agatha ends up at the School for Good. With Agatha’s help, Sophie tries to prove she’s right and wrong school by finding true love’s kiss. But things go awry when Sophie is tricked by Rafal (the schoolmaster’s evil twin brother) into believing that Agatha has betrayed her, and Sophie begins to embrace her evil side. But in the end, good prevails and Sophie protects Agatha from death by Rafal. Agatha revives Sophie with the kiss of true love, and the two friends return to Gavaldon together.
However, this is not the end for our two heroines. Although they have returned to their normal lives (aside from the magical abilities they acquired in the schools), their adventures have only just begun. An arrow pierces the veil between the two worlds and settles in a tree. It is Tedros who calls to Agatha for help. Just behind the arrow follows a dagger, but whose dagger is it??
What do the books say?
The dagger we see at the end of the film (pictured in the image above) was wielded by none other than Rafal Mistral, the villain of the story. But we saw him defeated and killed by Agatha, so this begs the question, is he really dead? Has anyone else claimed the dagger as theirs? And what does the dagger mean?
Perhaps the appearance of Rafal’s dagger suggests that he will return or that he has a devoted following. We heard Lady Lesso refer to Rafal as her love. While we see her make up with Professor Dovey at the end as the two schools unite, she may have been hiding her true feelings and intentions.
Or it could be that Rafal is destined to return, and the dagger is simply a method of foreshadowing. To find out which is most likely, we have to look at the books on which the film is based (series of the same name, written by Soman Chainani). From the second book A world without princes, we can confirm that it is indeed true that Rafal is returning. This means that Tedros would reach Agatha because the schools are being redistributed. The boys have been kicked out of the School for Good, which is now being turned into the School for Girls, and all the boys have gone to the School for Evil.
In the book, Sophie is tricked by Evelyn Sader, the new dean of the School for Girls, into bringing Rafal back to life. Evelyn summons Sophie’s mother’s ghost to reunite them and grant Sophie’s wish to see her mother again. Sophie kisses her, but it turns out that Rafal is in disguise. True love’s kiss brings him back to life, and this time Sophie chooses him over Agatha, and the two take School for Good off altogether, creating a combined School for Evil.
Will there be a sequel to the School for Good and Evil?
Knowing this, we wonder what the chance is that there will be a sequel The school for good and evil. The ending of the film certainly leaves open the possibility for a sequel, with a dagger alludes to the return from Rafal. It’s also possible that even if there is a sequel, it doesn’t exactly follow the books, and the dagger is simply the symbol of the re-emergence of evil.
Anyway, this alone may not be enough to suggest there will be another movie. Director Paul Feig has expressed his intention to make the film a franchise and turn the book series into a movie, but critics were not so kind to The school for good and evil. They praise the cast and costumes while bashing the story as underwhelming and lackluster.
On the other hand, viewers seemed to enjoy the movie as it hit the top ten Netflix shows upon release and received good reviews for being a decent book adaptation. We’ll have to wait and see if Netflix will announce a sequel. Until then, the dagger at the end has certainly left the gate to the fairytale world wide open.