The Wicked movie adaption will be split into two parts to avoid cutting songs and characters. Based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the stage musical took the theater world by storm in 2003. Centered on Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, and Galinda, who becomes Glinda the Good Witch, the story chronicles their unlikely friendship as they navigate a corrupt Oz. The original Broadway production won three Tony Awards and a Grammy for its cast album, while leading ladies Idina Menzel (Elphaba) and Kristin Chenoweth (Glinda) were minted as pop culture icons.

Though Wicked's massive success almost immediately spawned talk of a film version, it's taken decades for any movement. In 2021, the movie musical finally made some progress with In the Heights director Jon M. Chu signing on to helm the Universal Pictures project. It was announced that November that Tony-winner Cynthia Erivo and pop superstar Ariana Grande would assume the roles of Elphaba and Glinda, respectively. While the news surely stirred excitement amongst audiences at the time, there haven't been any major announcements until this week.

Related: Why Wicked Fans Are So Against A James Corden Casting

Now, Chu lights up social media by proclaiming the Wicked movie would be split into two parts. He cites how impossible it would be to condense the popular musical down into one film without losing important characters and beloved songs. Chu states that as the team geared up to go into production, it grew evident that Wicked had to be two films. He says more screen time means that they can bring greater levity and even more surprises to Wicked. The filmmaker adds that, along with stars Erivo and Grande, the entire crew aims to create an experience fans will love. Check out his post below:

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While it wasn't stated whether Wicked parts 1 and 2 would follow the Broadway musical's act structure, it seems likely that this is the case. If so, that means audiences can expect the entire first movie to culminate in the show's most popular song, Defying Gravity. However, from a business standpoint, the second film would house far less-popular songs than the first - but Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz will probably be enlisted to write new songs for both films, so each can be an equal awards contender.

Though the two-part split helps the story of the green girl, it's also going help bring more green to Universal. In a world where content is king, spreading out the movie musical adaptation into two separate entities has the possibility of maximizing the box-office numbers. Chu confirms in his message that Wicked parts 1 & 2 will release on successive Christmases starting in 2024, so fans still have a while to wait before they can decide whether this strategy was the right one.

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Source: John M. Chu