Before there was Hamilton, Wicked was every theater fan’s favorite musical. The musical, adapted from the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, takes place before the events of The Wizard of Oz. The plot focuses on Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West during their college days and reveals the background stories of other iconic Oz characters as well. Wicked has a massive following thanks to the success of the original Broadway cast — starring Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel as the two leads — and the popularity of songs like “Defying Gravity.”
A movie adaptation, inspired by the success of other musicals like Les Misérables, has been in the works for over a decade. In the last couple of years, major developments have been made and at last, Wicked (split into two parts) is on its way. After years of being stuck in development hell that was peppered with multiple cast and director changes, Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights) will be directing Wicked Part 1 and Part 2.
The musical doesn’t have a sequel (other than The Wizard of Oz) but during filming, Chu made the decision to split the film into two parts in order to honor the source material without cutting songs or important characters. Here’s what we know about who’s playing who and when the film is set to release.
Who’s in the Wicked: Part 1 cast?
While Menzel and Chenoweth won’t be reprising their (iconic, we cannot stress this enough) roles, two incredible musical talents have been cast as the leads in the film. Cynthia Erivo will play Elphaba as she sets on the path to becoming the Wicked Witch of the West. Erivo is an Oscar short of an EGOT after winning an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony award for playing Celie in the Broadway revival of The Color Purple. Recently, she’s been focusing on film and TV, notably playing Harriet Tubman in the 2019 film Harriet for which she received an Oscar nomination.
Pop star and Wicked fan Ariana Grande will be playing Glinda in the film. While more known for her chart-topping hits like “thank u, next” and “Into You” (which should have been a chart-topping hit, but we digress), Grande is no stranger to the theater; she got her start in the Broadway musical 13 as Charlotte. Her TV credits include playing Cat Valentine in Victorious and portraying one of the Chanels in Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens. She’s never shied away from showing her love of the musical, performing “The Wizard and I” for the musical’s 15th anniversary and interpolating the song “Popular” in a duet with Mika called “Popular Song” in her debut album.
In addition to the two leads, Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, Thor: Ragnarok) will play the infamous Wizard himself and Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh (Everything, Everywhere, All at Once) will be seen as headmaster Madame Morrible, a major antagonist in the film.
Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton) will play love interest Prince Fiyero and in her first big role, Marissa Bode will be Elphaba’s younger sister Nessarose; like her character, Bode is a wheelchair-user herself. Ethan Slater (Spongebob Squarepants: The Musical) will play Boq, Bowen Yang (Saturday Night Live) is set to be Pfanee, a friend of Gilda’s, and Bronwyn James (The Dig) will appear as ShenShen, a classmate. Rounding out the cast, Keala Settle (The Greatest Showman), Aaron Teoh Guan Ti, and Colin Michael Carmichael will play Miss Coddle, Avaric, and Professor Nikidik, respectively.
When will Wicked: Part 1 hit theaters?
Originally, Wicked: Part 1 and Part 2 were slated to release on Christmas Day, 2024 and 2025, but the first film will now premiere on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. The new release date will allow the film to take advantage of the long Thanksgiving weekend and avoid direct Christmas competition with blockbusters like the upcoming third Avatar and Sonic the Hedgehog films. Thankfully, the new date means we’ll be watching Wicked: Part 1 sooner than we thought. We can’t wait to see what’s sure to be a “Popular” film (we’ll go now).
As of now, Wicked: Part 2 is still set to release on Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. It’s still a few years away, but it’s possible the second film’s date will change as well, since an untitled Star Wars film — sure to have a huge turnout — is set to release on Dec. 19. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as more information about the films comes to light.