On linux, the correct way to link freetype (or other librairies) statically is to pass in the result of pkg-config --static --libs freetype2, which will include whatever libraries are needed based on freetype's compile-time flags (for me, it gives -lfreetype -lbz2 -lpng16 -lm -lz -lm -lz -lharfbuzz -lm -lglib-2.0 -pthread -lpcre -pthread -lgraphite2).
Do you know if there is an equivalent on Windows? Or perhaps static libs already include all other needed libs?

Do you know if there is an equivalent on Windows?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-linking

Or perhaps static libs already include all other needed libs?

Not necessarily, it depends how static lib was built.

@anntzer maybe you know a better way than 'bdist_wheel' in sys.argv to determining a wheel build?

I think the "correct" way is to subclass the bdist_wheel command? (if you override a method called early enough it should be sufficient to override the options on the extensions).

This was included in #13077 so closing.