On the night of the Super Bowl, Sunday, February 11th, the first trailer for the upcoming film Wicked finally premiered. With its short, one-minute run time, the trailer tells the audience what to expect. Based on the hit Broadway production, the story is meant to be a prequel to the story of The Wizard Of Oz. It examines the story of how the Wicked Witch of the West came to be. It also includes the backstory of her counterpart, Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. The roles of the witches are played by none other than Ariana Grande (Glinda) and Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba). It will also star Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey and Ethan Slater.
Directed by Jon M. Chu, the film was originally one longer film that would have had a lot of cuts. In an Instagram post, Chu spoke about the decision to make two parts. “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 mentioned how they “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 of these beloved characters.”
The first film comes out on November 27th. The next installment will come out a year later, in 2025. This adaptation is all in the mind of screenwriter Winnie Holzman, who also wrote the stage production. Composer and lyricist Stephan Swartz also signed on to compose the music. For now, the release is still months away at this point. It will be interesting to see how popular it becomes in the meantime. Will it live up to its Broadway counterpart?
