The long-anticipated film adaptation of the hit musical that turned The Wizard of Oz on its ear, as well as making Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth household names, has a release date.
Elphaba, a green-skinned witch who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, and her sister Glinda the Good Witch are at the heart of the narrative.
Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz and explores the events that happened before Dorothy’s journey on the yellow brick road.
Wicked: Part One stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda.
When is the release date for Wicked: Part One?
Wicked: Part One will be released in the US on November 27, 2024, a month earlier than anticipated. It is unclear whether the UK will have the same release date.
Variety says the studio behind it, Universal, decided against the initial December release date because it would be "better positioned" around Thanksgiving on November 23.
Why is it being split into two parts?
Director Jon M Chu last year announced on social media that the film would be broken into two parts.
“Special Wicked Update / Thank you for all the support these past several months in anticipation of the WICKED movie,” he told fans. “We have so many exciting things to share but for now I’m giving you one… or two, rather.
“Here’s what happened: 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,” Chu said. “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.”
What to expect
The musical, which had its Broadway premiere in 2003, has become hugely popular. It earned more than $1 billion (£820,000) in total revenue on Broadway in 2016. At least two new songs are anticipated to be included in the film.
The cast also includes Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, and Ethan Slater as Boq.
Chu is best known as the director of 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians. This was the first film by a major Hollywood studio to feature a majority cast of Asian descent in a modern setting since The Joy Luck Club in 1993.
