“Wicked” is going to be twice as nice.
Jon M. Chu’s big-screen adaptation of the popular Broadway musical will be split into two films starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, the director announced Tuesday.
“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 some real damage to it,” Chu said in a tweet.
“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.”
Chu continued, “So we decided to give ourselves an even bigger canvas and make not just one WICKED movie but TWO!!!!”
The films will come out in December 2024 and December 2025, Chu said.
“Wicked” originated on Broadway in 2003 and focuses on the witches who live in the Land of Oz. The castings of Erivo as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Grande as the bubbly Glinda the Good Witch were announced last year.
“Cynthia, Ariana and I — and all of the cast and crew — pledge to create nothing less than an experience that honors its foundation for all the fans who’ve waited for this movie, and to offer a thrilling, fantastical world full of dynamic characters that invites in those who are unfamiliar,” Chu said.
Chu previously directed “Crazy Rich Asians” and last year’s movie musical “In the Heights,” which was adapted from the Broadway show by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
