‘Wicked’ Movie Adaptation Grows into TWO Movies; First Part Releasing December 2024

The Wizard of Oz-based musical Wicked is getting a movie adaptation from Crazy Rich Asians filmmaker Jon M. Chu, and that project is now larger in scope than originally planned.

In fact, the story will now be told across TWO different movies!

Chu tweets this morning, “Here’s what happened: as we prepared this production over the last year, it became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to wrestle the story of Wicked into a single film without doing real damage to it. 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. So 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 of these beloved characters.”

“So get ready, because Wicked is finally coming to you on successive Christmas holidays beginning December 2024,” Chu adds in the announcement tweet you’ll find below.

The filmmaker also promises the two-part adaptation will “offer a thrilling, fantastical world full of dynamic characters” that invites both fans and those unfamiliar with the musical.

From Wiki, “The musical is told from the perspective of, and focuses on, the witches of the Land of Oz; its plot begins before and continues after Dorothy Gale arrives in Oz from Kansas. Wicked tells the story of two unlikely friends, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (Glinda the Good Witch), whose relationship struggles through their opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard’s corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba’s private fall from grace.”

Ariana Grande is playing Glinda, with Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba.