Fans who have been anxiously waiting to see “Wicked,” the film adaptation of the popular Broadway musical, just got the most wonderful news from the land of Oz. According to the movie’s director, Jon M. Chu, the first installment of “Wicked” will now premiere in November 2024 instead of on Christmas Day.
The two-movie adaptation of the 2003 Broadway musical stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West), Ariana Grande as Glinda, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz, and newly crowned-Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh as Madam Morrible, who runs the magical university where the witches learn their craft.
“Wicked” tells the story of Elphaba, a young woman who is misunderstood because of her green skin color and powerful magical ability. After a rocky first meeting, Elphaba and Glinda become best friends until fate takes them on different paths. One woman becomes the Wicked Witch of the West and the other becomes the Good Witch of the North.
On March 14, Chu tweeted that they were “deep into production” and shared the news that the first film will be ready so much earlier than expected that they’re moving up the release date to Nov. 27, 2024.
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
Chu and his production team decided to make a two-movie series to tell the “Wicked” tale. He shared his reasoning for the decision to split the movie into two parts on Twitter back in April 2022.
“It became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to wrestle the story of ‘Wicked’ into a single film without doing damage to it,” Chu wrote. “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 for so many years.”
The second part of “Wicked” has a scheduled release date of Dec. 25, 2025.
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