Get ready to defy gravity because Wicked just gave us a glimpse into its movie magic, but some fans are divided on the artistic direction of the film adaptation.
Okay, I’m not gonna lie. I’ve basically been a gritty lil’ theatre kid all my life and when I had the opportunity to see Wicked on broadway in New York City, I completely sobbed at its jaw-dropping production.
The glitter, the green and everything in between — it was perfection.
When it was announced that the musical was going to be turned into a movie, I was super stoked.
Just this week Wicked director Jon M. Chu — who is responsible for movies like In The Heights, Step Up 2: The Streets and Crazy Rich Asians — dropped the first looks of Glinda and Elphaba.
So if you’re geed up for Wicked here’s everything we know so far about the film adaptation.
When will Wicked be released?
In a lengthy Twitter post from Jon that was sent from his magical “OzPhone”, the director revealed that the movie will be released in two parts, with the first one originally arriving “Christmas holidays December 2024”.
“It became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to wrestle the story of Wicked into a single film without doing some real damage to it,” he said.
“So we decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one Wicked movie but TWO!!!”
Special #Wicked Movie Announcement… ✌🏼🎬🧹🌸💚sent from my OzPhone: pic.twitter.com/4qPpvVD4rR
— Jon M. Chu (@jonmchu) April 26, 2022
But in more exciting news, Jon tweeted out on March 15 2023, that the release date for Part One has been moved up to November 27 2024.
As the director said, it truly is a “little Thanksgiving treat” even though we don’t celebrate the tradition Down Under.
WICKED NEWS: We are deep into production on WICKED and everyday we get more and more excited to share with u the mischief we’ve been up to. So…We’ve decided to get it to you all a little earlier than planned. OUR NEW RELEASE Date is NOV 27th 2024! A little Thanksgiving treat! pic.twitter.com/6YvjA1gRDr
— Jon M. Chu (@jonmchu) March 14, 2023
Is there a Wicked trailer?
At the moment, no. But as Jon tweeted, the team are halfway through filming.
But on Monday, the official Wicked movie account dropped some first looks of Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba.
To give you a quick TL;DR on Wicked: the musical is an adaptation of the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of the West. The plot follows Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda the Good Witch before the events of the iconic Wizard of Oz. I won’t spoil too much, but it’s a really good musical that address topics such as identity, friendship, death and so much more.
But back to the pics! The first glimpses into the world of the Wicked movie have been quite mixed, mostly because they were dark AF.
You either had to squint or FaceTune it for a brighter exposure to see Cynthia and Ari.
— Wicked Movie (@wickedmovie) April 16, 2023
A user on Twitter wrote: “The PONYTAIL??? For real???” in regards to Ariana’s look as Glinda. Another user wrote: “Lighting courtesy of the Game Of Thrones cinematographer.”
Wicked director Jon responded to the concerns, tweeting, “Don’t worry, colour is in my DNA… this is just the first tease. Plenty of time to show more… stay tuned.”
On Wednesday morning, more photos of Ariana as Glinda surfaced on the internet. This time with a lot more colour and lighting, but some fans were still unimpressed.
https://twitter.com/etnow/status/1648401006168879105?s=20
Popular fashion IG account Diet Prada reposted the fresh Glinda looks, and some folks commented their thoughts on the costume.
One IG user wrote, “So derivative. So boring. So safe.” Another one wrote, “I wish the hair was more… Glinda and less Grande…. But I’ll still watch.”
A bunch of people also commented on Ariana’s skin tone as she has been previously accused of attempting to look like other races, most recently East Asian.
No on set photos of Cynthia have dropped just yet, but we’re super keen to see her wicked take on Elphaba.
Who’s in the cast of Wicked?
As mentioned previously, the two starring roles belong to Ariana Grande as Glinda, and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba — and with these two powerhouse vocalists, you know these roles are in good hands.
In case you’ve never heard of these two, Ariana was previously on the Nickelodeon hit show Victorious. She’s also a multi-award winning singer AND she does have experience on Broadway. She debuted on the big stage when she was just 14-years-old in 13: The Musical.
Cynthia Eviro has played a variety of singing and acting roles in her career including the Blue Fairy in the 2022 Pinocchio and Kratu in Star Wars: Visions. According to Broadway.com Cynthia has credits in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Sister Act, I Can’t Sing! The X Factor Musical and many, many more.
Wicked has also previously announced that Academy Award Winning Michelle Yeoh has been cast to play Madame Morrible, and Bridgerton hottie Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero. Jeff Goldblum has also been cast as the Wizard, according to IMDb.
So far, we’ve only got the date and the pics.
The closest thing we’ve got to a soundtrack is Ariana and Mika‘s 2014 collab track “Popular Song” that takes heavy inspo from Wicked’s “Popular”, sung by Glinda — who is now Ari.
But if you’re truly impatient for the movie — I mean, we’ve got a year and a bit to go — the stage musical will be returning to Australia this year for its 20th Anniversary.
I’m so ready to cry to this movie, only a massive house falling on me will muffle my happy wails.
