Jon M. Chu Shares First Look at ‘Wicked’ Movie’s Witches
Meet the wonderful new witches of Oz.
Director Jon M. Chu just shared the first official look at the stars of his upcoming adaptation of Wicked, the long-running Broadway musical inspired by L. Frank Baum’s Oz novels. The caption to his initial Instagram post read “you weren’t told the whole story. What happens when you veer off the Yellow Brick Road? FIRST LOOK of the #WickedMovie … currently in production in Oz.”
A second post read “Green & Pink. It always starts with green and pink. #WickedMovie coming to you in 2024.”
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That’s Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Ariana Grande as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. The film will also star Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Ethan Slater, Michelle Yeoh, and Bowen Yang. (Goldblum plays the Wizard of Oz.)
A Wicked movie has been discussed for over a decade, with the project officially announced way back in 2012. At one point Stephen Daldry was going to direct the movie, and the rumored names for Elphaba and Glinda included Lea Michele and Amy Adams, among others. It took until 2021 for the film to finally and firmly fall into place, after Chu was hired to direct and Erivo and Grande were chosen for the two key roles.
Wicked was initially scheduled to open on Christmas 2024, but it was recently moved up one month, and is now scheduled to open in theaters on November 27, 2024. It’s actually expected to adapt only the first half of the Broadway show, with a sequel to follow and conclude the story the following year.