Wicked made its Broadway debut in 2003 with Idina Menzel cast in the role of Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth cast as Glinda. The plot of Wicked is a retelling of the 1900 acclaimed novel, The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and the film adaptation of the same name staring Judy Garland.
Wicked is told from the perspective of Witches of Oz, Elphaba, The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda, The Good Witch. The plot focuses on the events prior to Dorothy’s arrival to Oz, as well as during and after, placing Wicked in the same story universe of The Wizard of Oz, utilising the novel and film as canon for the musical.
Fast forward 18 years later and the announcement has been made that a feature length film is officially in the works, with director John M. Chu set to direct, and Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman penning the script.
So who will be playing the iconic Witches of Oz? It was revealed last week that pop-star and actress, Ariana Grande, has been cast in the role of Glinda with Emmy, Grammy and Tony award winner, Cynthia Erivo, cast in the iconic role of Elphaba.
Ariana Grande 
Cynthia Erivo
Chu previously directed the critically acclaimed Crazy Rich Asians, which was controversially shut out by the Academy Awards. He also directed the identically critically acclaimed 2021 musical drama In the Heights.
The two stars of the upcoming film, Grande and Erivo, posted their excitement on Instagram.
Grande posted a series of pictures showing off her reaction when she found out she got the role from director John M. Chu, with the caption simply reading, “thank goodness,” tagging Chu, Erivo and the official Wicked Instagram page, garnering over 6.7 million likes.
Erivo posted a similar series of pictures with the caption, “Pink goes good with Green,” also tagging Chu, the official Wicked Instagram page and Grande. The post garnered over 200,000 likes.
James Corden, who has not been announced as apart of the cast of Wicked, but has appeared in many film adaptations of musicals, such as Into the Woods, Cats and The Prom, has prompted musical fans who do not want Corden in Wicked to create a Change.org petition, which is supposedly begging the producers of Wicked to keep Corden away from the production. So far, there has been 35,000 signatures, with 50,000 required.
Production is not set to begin until the summer of next year, therefore, a release date is still unknown. However, 2023 is the speculated year of release for the musical film.
Are you excited to see a feature length Wicked film? Let us know in the comments below.
Written by Mansour Shukoor
