The release dates for the upcoming musical Wicked are pushed back to Christmas 2024 and 2025. Based on the extremely popular musical of the same name, Wicked chronicles the journey of unlikely friendship Glinda and Elphaba, who later become mortal enemies as Glinda the Good Witch and The Wicked Witch of the West in the classic story of The Wizard of Oz. The original 2003 Broadway production was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and won six including Best Actress for Idina Menzel for her role as Elphaba, as well as Costume and Scenic design.
Jon M. Chu will direct Wicked, following his critically-acclaimed musical In the Heights, a story originally written by Lin Manuel Miranda inspired by his life growing up in the Washington Heights neighborhood in New York. The Color Purple's Tony Award-winning actor Cynthia Erivo was cast as Elphaba and Grammy award-winning singer Ariana Grande has been cast as Glinda. Original cast member Menzel praised the casting decision while Chu later shared that Grande's compelling audition brought him to tears.
Per Variety, the upcoming musical adaptation Wicked has been split into two parts. The first movie will release on December 25, 2024, with the second one following on December 25, 2025. According to Chu, the decision to split the film led into the decision to delay its release. The director explains that as they entered production with a desire to trim down scenes and cut musical numbers, he found it impossible as certain characters would be compromised. Read what Chu had to say below.
"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. 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."
To protect the integrity of Wicked's characters, Chu, along with the original writers Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, have found it imperative to keep as much of the story intact as possible. Removing certain story elements, especially songs, can have a detrimental impact to Wicked's overarching narrative as well as the emotional journey of the characters. Songs in musicals tend to contain important plot elements and character moments. Musicals quite often have their main characters express their wants and desires as well as their regrets through songs. Removing these numbers can effectively ruin the story.
Although the length of a musical is comparable to that of a film at about two to three hours long, adapting stage productions tend to increase the length of the story due to the nature of the medium. The Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra version of Guys and Dolls (1955) was released at two and a half hours long and still had five songs removed from the final film. By splitting Wicked at a musical's natural act break in the middle, and releasing the film in two parts, this allows the filmmakers to faithfully adapt the much beloved story.
Source: Variety