‘Wicked’: Everything to Know About the Ariana Grande-Led Films Based on the Broadway Musical

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‘Wicked’: Everything to Know About the Ariana Grande-Led Films Based on the Broadway Musical

Isn’t this news wonderful? After nearly 10 years of development, the long-awaited film adaptation of Broadway’s Wicked is making headway as it finally landed its stars, director and potential start dates.

The musical, a longtime Great White Way staple since its debut in 2004, has gone through plenty of discussions and changes regarding a potential film version after it was previously revealed in July 2012 that Universal was hoping to adapt it for the big screen.

The show, based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, tells the interconnected story of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch long before Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy Gale dropped in. In the prequel, the two aspiring witches meet while students at Shiz University, navigating friendship, romance, magical training and learning to embrace their own identities.

By 2012, Deadline reported that Stephen Daldry was in consideration to direct the big-screen event, however, by October 2020, he had exited the project due to scheduling conflicts. In February 2021, it was confirmed that John M. Chu — fresh off the success of directing Crazy Rich Asians and In The Heights — had been tapped to lead the musical adaptation.

"Most of my life I have felt out of place, weird and different,” Chu wrote via Instagram at the time, sharing a screenshot of the news. “I hid behind my camera because people liked to be filmed and I could disappear. I used my short films to wow people so I could feel valued. I felt GREEN in all the ways. But when I saw Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s WICKED over 15 years ago as it was being workshopped in San Francisco I couldn’t unsee it. So to think that I have been invited to bring this timeless story to the biggest screens all around the world for people to experience with their family, best friends and total strangers … of all walks of life, ages, shapes and colors is like I’ve been invited to Oz by the Wizard himself.”

After a lengthy casting process, the filmmaker announced via the social media platform in November 2021 that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo had landed the roles of Galinda and Elphaba, respectively.

“These two witches!!,” he captioned his Instagram snap, alongside screenshots from FaceTime calls with the two songstresses. “The emotional moment I got to tell @cynthiaerivo and @arianagrande that they were our Elphaba and Galinda in the @WickedMovie for @unistudios 😭😭😭wait until you see what they bring!! It is other worldly. Ahhhhh!!!”

The viral casting news soon gained the attention of the OG Elphaba, Idina Menzel, who wrote via Instagram, “Congrats to two amazing women. May it change your lives for the better forever and ever as it has for us. So much love. @cynthiaerivo @arianagrande 💚💖.”  

The Rent actress, who starred opposite Kristin Chenoweth during the original Broadway run, reunited with the Oklahoma native during the 2021 Tony Awards that September, where they sang an emotional rendition of “For Good” from the production.

Keep scrolling to find out everything we know so far about the highly anticipated Wicked movies:

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The Stars

It was announced in November 2021 that the Harriet star and the “Positions” singer had landed the impressive roles of Elphaba and Galinda, roles which were originated by Menzel and Chenoweth on Broadway. 


The casting news even fulfilled the Florida native’s long-held dreams after she tweeted in 2011, “Loved seeing Wicked again… amazing production! Made me realize again how badly I want 2 play Glinda at some point in my life! #DreamRole.”

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The Director

The Crazy Rich Asians filmmaker was enlisted to helm the project in February 2021, writing via Instagram, “Thank you Marc Platt, Stephen [Schwartz], Winnie [Holzman] and Universal Pictures for trusting in me to translate this incredible story for all the fans and future fans of Elphaba and Glinda. I will protect this vigorously and hopefully bring a few new surprises along the way.”

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Production Dates

The film is slated to begin production in June 2022 in the U.K., according to an October 2021 report from The Hollywood Reporter.

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Making Plans

The In the Heights director previously teased his work on the musical during a June 2021 interview with Collider.

“Yes, of course, we're going to have Oz, and you're going to be in this crazy world, and you're going to revisit this innocent place and you're going to see that it's not as innocent as it had been in the past,” Chu told the outlet. “But you're also going to see that the relationship between these two women [Elphaba and Glinda] is more real than ever, that we're going to be that close to them. We're going to root for them to try to get into that school or when one crosses the other. You're going to hate the other one at some point. You're going to want them to make up at another point, and you're going to feel when they separate. That's the most important thing. The spectacle? That's the easy part, we can hire a lot of people to do that. It's those little moments … That’s what's going to make that."

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Getting Musical

The original musical songs — including the likes of “Popular,” “Defying Gravity” and “One Short Day” — have become classics in their own right. However, composer Steven Schwartz revealed his intentions to pen “at least two” new songs for the filmed version.

Schwartz told Variety in May 2017 that there are “new songs planned” and the movie won’t be an exact replica of the Broadway show. “There are things that work on stage but won’t work on film. In order to do something that will work on its own merits, you have to do something different," he said at the time. “The only concern is people who would be coming expecting to see a filmed version of the play. They’re not going to see that.”

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James Corden Scandal

More than 30,000 fans signed a Change.org petition begging Universal Pictures not to cast James Corden, who recently appeared in the Cats movie, in the movie adaptation. "James Corden in no way shape or form should be in or near the production of Wicked the movie," the petition, hoping for 50,000 signatures, reads. "That’s pretty much it."

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A Long Time Coming

Following the musical’s acclaim within its early Broadway run, Platt and Universal started developing a film project nearly a decade before Grande and Erivo’s casting was announced. The Daldry-directed flick was initially scheduled to premiere in December 2019 before further delays set the project back.

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Getting Musical

Erivo teased one of her Wicked character’s most iconic duets during a March 2022 appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden. She sang a rendition of “For Good” with an employee of the CBS talk show during a round of "Instant, Mystery Duets."

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Will She Be Green-ified?

“I haven’t seen myself as Elphaba yet,” Erivo told Entertainment Tonight in April 2022. “We’re sort of trying to decide, like, how green we’re gonna go and, like, what the stages are and whether or not it changes as she changes. [John Chu is] really open to making this as creative as we possibly can. He asked me at one point if I wanted to be actually green or CGI green and I was like, ‘I’d like to actually be green because I’m not sure that the CGI will sit the way you need it to sit.’ I want it to still feel like it’s my skin.”

She added: “I will feel like I’m playing this character [with green-painted skin] as opposed to looking at myself as I am now and then they fill in the green. I think it will help me perform because I will know when I look at my hands, I’ll see someone who is green.” 

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Two Movies

Chu announced in April 2022 that the film adaptation would be split into two movies.

"Here's what happened: 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,” the director wrote in a statement via Twitter. “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.”

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Release Dates

The first Wicked movie will hit theaters on November 27, 2024. The second will premiere in December 2025, but an exact date has not been released.

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Behind-the-Scenes Love

Before kicking off filming, Erivo and Grande have proved they are already as close as Elphie and Galinda. The Tony Award winner posted a sweet July 2022 Instagram video in which the pair embraced after her Royal Albert Hall concert in London.

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Singing Her Heart Out

In September 2022, Erivo opened up about the challenges of recording some of the musical's iconic songs for the big screen. "I've been listening to it, and I've sung it. I kind of just go with it naturally," she told Entertainment Weekly about preparing to record "Defying Gravity," Wicked's most well-known number. "There's the temptation to push and to do too much with it. I don't know that that's what my method will be. I think my method will be to communicate the meaning of the song as much as I can."

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Ready to Dance Through Life

Chu confirmed in September 2022 that Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey would join the cast as leading man Fiyero.

“He’s perfect, they’re perfect. They’d be perfect together. Born to be forever….. I am too excited to pretend this hasn’t been happening. We have a Fiyero,” the director excitedly tweeted at the time, shortly before Bailey and Grande applauded the news via their respective Instagrams.

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Pink and Green Besties

“I love you @cynthiaerivo,” the “Dangerous Woman” singer captioned a September 2022 Instagram Story of the two women’s dancing shoes. While Grande’s Galinda wore delicate pink ballet slippers, Erivo opted for black slip-ons and green socks.

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Rehearsals in Progress

“Somewhere in Oz,” Erivo captioned an October 2022 selfie with her fellow Wicked witch.

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From Broadway to Boq

Ethan Slater, best known for his Tony-nominated role of SpongeBob SquarePants, is set to play Shiz University student Boq (and Nessarose’s eventual love interest) on the big screen.

“@EthanSlater it is an honor to have you attending [Shiz University],” Chu gushed via Instagram Story in December 2022. “I’ve been a big fan of yours for a long time and I can’t wait for the world to see you bringing Boq to life!"

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Headmistress in Charge

Michelle Yeoh will portray the role of Shiz University's headmistress, Madame Morrible, Variety reported in December 2022. 

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Who Will Round Out the Cast?

Wicked completed its casting with Marissa Bode, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Keala Settle, Aaron Teoh and Colin Michael Carmichael joining the film. 

Bode will portray Nessarose, Elphaba’s sister, while Yang and James are set to play fellow classmates Pfannee and ShenShen, respectively. Settle, for her part, landed the role of Miss Coddle, and Teoh will play Avaris. Carmichael, meanwhile, was cast as Nikidik.

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Ready to Meet the Wizard

“I was just on the set of Wicked. I’m not supposed to talk about that. But it’s been out and about,” Jeff Goldblum said during a March 2023 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, without revealing who he will be playing. “I was shooting one day and I found myself tearing up in fear, a childhood fear came back to me.”