Wicked (2024) is about to hit our screens and we can’t wait to see the movie: here are all the reasons to be excited about it!
In a little less than a month, Wicked will come out in cinemas worldwide and it is very much on track to become one of the most talked-about films of 2024. For musical theatre fans, this is about to become the biggest release of the year. For the rest of the audience, it may very well be the same if the scope that the trailer portrays is anything to go by. So why is everyone looking forward to watching the latest movie musical phenomenon? These are all the reasons to be excited for the film!
1. The Plot of Wicked
Based on the stage musical of the same name, which is in turn based on a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, Wicked takes the audience back to the Land of Oz, setting its story before Dorothy’s arrival from Kansas and the events depicted in The Wizard of Oz (1939) that virtually everyone in the audience will be familiar with. The film will cover the story portrayed in the first act of the musical, when the green-skinned witch Elphaba begins her studies at Shiz University and meets Glinda the Good Witch of the North. In doing so, the movie will show us Elphaba’s journey through school, Oz, and ultimately to becoming the infamous Wicked Witch of the West.
2. The Wicked Soundtrack
Naturally, the one thing that is synonymous with Wicked is the music. We’ve already heard snippets of some songs in the trailer and promotional material released so far – “Dancing Through Life,” and “Defying Gravity” are two examples of this – but the audience still has so much to look forward to. Ariana Grande’s rendition of “Popular” is definitely one of the most anticipated songs that viewers will hear in the first act of the musical. It is only second to what may very well be the most popular song of the entire musical: “Defying Gravity.” The actors also sang live on set for all the songs, which adds a further level of excitement as it is probably as close as audiences can get to the theatre version of the musical through a screen.
3. The Director of Wicked
John M. Chu took over as the director of Wicked in 2021 after the project went through a series of delays due to production scheduling in 2018 and due to COVID in 2020. Best known for his adaptation of Crazy Rich Asians in 2018, Chu is no stranger to musical theatre. In fact, he has adapted a stage musical for the screen before and did a brilliant job at doing so with In the Heights (2019), which received a very positive response when it came out. In his upcoming project, the director will also be reunited with cinematographer Alice Brooks after working together for In the Heights, which seems to be a very promising start for this movie.
4. The Cast: Who Will Star in Wicked?
News of the cast followed shortly after Chu was confirmed as the director. In November 2021, the two main characters of Wicked were cast: Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba. This is especially exciting as the former has often described Glinda as her dream role long before the film was even in the works and the latter has starred in many Broadway productions and even won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2016 for her performance in The Color Purple.
The rest of the cast is just as thrilling as it will include Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz, and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero.
5. Stepping into Oz in Wicked
As audiences can already see from the trailer, Wicked will bring the wonderful world of Oz to life in all its details. The costume design by Paul Tazewell, who previously worked on both Hamilton and West Side Story, is already a good indication of this. Judging from the poster alone, it looks like two of the most iconic looks for both the protagonists have been recreated in the film with Glinda’s iconic pink dress and Elphaba’s black outfit with her witch hat on. The production design by Nathan Crowley is just as impressive in recreating the atmosphere and places of Oz, such as the Shiz University where Glinda and Elphaba meet, for the audience to visit and get to know.
6. The Wicked Sequel
For those of us who can’t wait to watch the movie already, the good news is that we will have something else to look forward to in the next couple of years as well. The upcoming movie is only the first part of a series of two films that will adapt the film for the screen. While the choice to split the movie adaptation in two is not entirely popular with the musical fanbase, it does mean that viewers will get to relish in the excitement of a new Wicked film once more and thoroughly explore everything that the Oz universe has to offer. Wicked Part Two is currently set to be released in November 2025, a year after the first instalment of the duology.
7. The Changes: How Wicked Will Change the Stage Musical
However, the fact that the film is split into two allows Chu to explore a lot more than what was initially covered in the musical, especially in terms of characters’ relationships. Ultimately, it is very likely that even those in the audience who know the musical like the back of their hands will be surprised by scenes that are not in the source material. This is particularly exciting as Wicked will add something new to a story many of us already know and love. In order to fully explore the characters and their respective arcs, the movie will also use the 1995 novel Wicked by Gregory Maguire and The Wonder Wizard of Oz (1990) by L. Frank Baum as inspiration.
While we have to wait just a little longer to see Wicked on the big screen, the promotional material that has come out so far already teased some of the most fascinating elements of the film, such as the songs and the production design. Naturally, this only made fans of the musical even more excited to see its adaptation on screen as the movie seems to be already starting off on the right foot. However, the marketing campaign will also most likely attract the attention of viewers who may not initially be familiar with the source material as Wicked is quickly setting up to become the next cinematic experience of 2024.
Wicked will be released in US theaters, in UK & Irish cinemas, and globally in theaters on November 22, 2024.
