Ding dong! The wicked witch is alive and well in the first trailer for “Wicked.”
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are a vision in green and pink as they grace the fantastical land of Oz in Jon M. Chu’s upcoming movie musical. And the first look at the film unfolds to the familiar strains of “Defying Gravity,” the show’s signature anthem.
“Don’t be afraid,” Grande’s Glinda reassures Erivo’s Elphaba.
“I’m not afraid,” Erivo responds, steely voiced. “It’s the Wizard who should be afraid of me.”
Based on Gregory Maguire’s novel that inspired Broadway’s acclaimed musical of the same name, “Wicked” precedes Dorothy’s arrival in Oz and tells the legend of world and the story behind Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.
The cast includes Erivo as Elphaba; Grande as Galinda Upland, who later becomes Glinda the Good Witch; Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible; Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar; Ethan Slater as Boq; Bowen Yang as Pfannee; and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz.
Chu’s version of the musical was filmed in two parts to properly adapt the story. “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,” Chu said back in 2022.
“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,” he added. “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.”
Composer Stephen Schwartz, songwriter for “Wicked,” explained that the curtain-closing number “Defying Gravity” was a large reason why the film had to be made in two parts. In a 2022 newsletter, Schwartz wrote, “We found it very difficult to get past ‘Defying Gravity’ without a break. That song is written specifically to bring a curtain down, and whatever scene to follow it without a break just seemed hugely anti-climactic.”
Schwartz also revealed to Variety that there were only 10 days left of filming before the production was shut down due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
The first part of Chu’s “Wicked” is set to hit theaters on Nov. 27, 2024. “Part Two” is slated for Nov. 26, 2025.
Watch the trailer below.