The Wicked movie adaption will be split into two parts to avoid cutting songs and characters. Based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the stage musical took the theater world by storm in 2003. Centered on Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, and Galinda, who becomes Glinda the Good Witch, the story chronicles their unlikely friendship as they navigate a corrupt Oz. The original Broadway production won three Tony Awards and a Grammy for its cast album, while leading ladies Idina Menzel (Elphaba) and Kristin Chenoweth (Glinda) were minted as pop culture icons.
Though Wicked‘s massive success almost immediately spawned talk of a film version, it’s taken decades for any movement. In 2021, the movie musical finally made some progress with In the Heights director Jon M. Chu signing on to helm the Universal Pictures project. It was announced that November that Tony-winner Cynthia Erivo and pop superstar Ariana Grande would assume the roles of Elphaba and Glinda, respectively. While the news surely stirred excitement amongst audiences at the time, there haven’t been any major announcements until this week.
