Get ready to defy gravity because the official trailer for the Wicked movie has Us on our feet.
Universal Pictures released the first look at the 2024 adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical on Sunday, February 11, during Super Bowl LVIII. In the clips, fans got to see Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande make their debut as Elphaba and Glinda, respectively. The movie also stars Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang, Keala Settle and more.
The brief teaser gave fans their first look at Oz as the recognizable notes of “Defying Gravity” played. Grande’s Glinda arrives in pink and is shocked as she meets Erivo’s Elphaba. “You’re green,” Glinda gasps. Elphaba was aware.
Elphaba, who will become the Wicked Witch of the West, warns of her darkness. “Something just takes over me, and when it does, bad things happen,” she says.
Wicked is based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The book provides backstory for the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch before Dorothy Gale crashes into their world in The Wizard of Oz. The play has been a staple on Broadway since 2004 and jump-started the careers of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth.
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The film adaptation has been in the works since 2012, but it didn’t pick up steam until Jon M. Chu was tapped to direct in February 2021. He cast Grande and Erivo in November 2021 and production began in June 2022.
Ahead of filming, Chu announced that the movie will be split into two parts due to the lengthy story and the addition of new songs. (Running time for the musical adaptation is 2 hours and 45 minutes.)
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“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,” Chu 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.”
In addition to being a long awaited film, the movie also made headlines for Grande and Slater’s romance. While filming the movie, the pair grew close on set. Slater plays Boq, who has an unrequited crush on Glinda. Us Weekly confirmed in July 2023 that Grande and Slater started dating following their recent separations from spouses Dalton Gomez and Lilly Jay, respectively.
Wicked Part One hits theaters on November 27, 2024, while the second will premiere one year later on November 25, 2025.
