After two decades as one of the most beloved and enduring musicals on the stage, Wicked makes its long-awaited journey to the big screen as a spectacular, generation-defining cinematic event this holiday season.
Wicked (also known as Wicked: Part One) is an upcoming American musical fantasy film directed by Jon M. Chu and written by Winnie Holzman. It is the first of a two-part film adaptation of the stage musical of the same name by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman, which in turn was based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire. The film stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, with Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, and Keala Settle in supporting roles. Set in the Land of Oz before and continuing after Dorothy Gale’s arrival from Kansas, it revolves around Elphaba Thropp, a green-skinned woman, and explores the path that leads her to become the Wicked Witch of the West, all while forming an unlikely friendship and later rivalry with Galinda Upland, who would go on to become Glinda the Good
In 2012, Universal Pictures announced the film’s development with Marc Platt as a producer. After a long development and multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chu was hired to direct, with Erivo and Grande cast in their respective roles in 2021. Principal photography began in December 2022 in England, but was paused from July until November 2023 due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Filming eventually resumed and concluded in January 2024.
Cast
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- Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp, a young woman born with green skin who later becomes the Wicked Witch of the West
- Ariana Grande as Galinda Upland, a popular young woman who later becomes Glinda the Good
- Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, the headmistress of Shiz University
- Jeff Goldblum as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
- Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar, a Winkie prince who meets Elphaba and Glinda at school.
- Ethn Slater as Boq, a Munchkin in love with Glinda
- Marissa Bode as Nessarose Thropp, Elphaba’s paraplegic younger sister who later becomes the Wicked Witch of the East
- Bowen Yang as Pfannee, one of Galinda’s college friend
- Bronwyn James as ShenShen, another of Galinda’s college friends
- Keala Settle as Miss Coddle, a new character created for this film
- Aaron Teoh as Averic, Fiyero’s friend
- Grecia de la Paz as Gilligan
- Colin Michael Carmichael as Professor Nikidik, a professor at Shiz University
- Adam James as Galinda’s father, another new character created for this film
Chenoweth and Menzel were mentioned as possible film leads. Lea Michele and Amy Adams were also rumored to be potential leads. Potential writers included Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz, while J. J. Abrams, Rob Marshall, James Mangold, and Ryan Murphy were mentioned as possible candidates for director. In December 2012, following the success of Les Misérables, Marc Platt, also a producer of the stage version, announced the film was going ahead, later confirming the film was aiming for a 2016 release After a long development, Universal announced in 2016 that the film would be released in theatres on December 20, 2019, with Stephen Daldry directing. By 2024, Holzman was credited as the sole writer.
As we prepared the production over the last year, it became impossible to wrestle the story of ‘Wicked’ into a single film without doing some real damage to it … As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions began to feel like fatal compromises to the source material that has entertained us all for so many years. We decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one ‘Wicked’ movie but two! With more space, we can tell the story of ‘Wicked’ as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys for these beloved characters.
Release
Originally announced as one film, Wicked was split into two films in April 2022. The first half, titled simply Wicked, is scheduled to be released theatrically, with engagements in IMAX and Dolby Cinema, on November 27, 2024, by Universal Pictures. It was scheduled to be released theatrically on December 25, 2024 but on March 14, 2023, it was announced that it would be moved up to its current November release date to avoid competition with Avatar 3 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the former of which was later delayed to 2025 after Thunderbolts, and later Mufasa: The Lion King took its date.
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