5 Minutes Of Wicked Footage Highlight Glinda & Elphaba’s Relationship & Oz In Crisis At CinemaCon

Summary

• CinemaCon reveals a new look at the
  Wicked
  movie.
• Wicked
  is based on the musical of the same name and explores the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West.
• Cynthia Erivo stars as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda in the upcoming movie directed by Jon M. Chu.

A closer look at Wicked has arrived. The upcoming movie is the first part of a two-part adaptation of the 2003 Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, which in turn was based on the 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire that offered a backstory for the Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The movie, which was directed by Jon M. Chu, stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda alongside a cast that also includes Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Bowen Yang, and Keala Settle.

Screen Rant was present at CinemaCon, where Universal screened footage from the Wicked movie and also announced that Peter Dinklage will be playing Dr. Dillamond. The footage involved Glinda and Elphaba being assigned as roommates and Elphaba catching the attention of Madame Morrible (Yeoh) over Glinda. When Elphaba goes to meet the Wizard (Goldblum), Glinda comes along, and after a montage, Elphaba tells the Wizard he has no power, to which he responds, “That’s why I need you.” Later, she grabs her broom and flies out of a tower after insisting the Wizard should be afraid of her.

Will Wicked Live Up To The Original Stage Musical?

Broadway’s Wicked Casts A Long Shadow

With memorable songs such as “Defying Gravity” and “Popular” as well as a cast jam-packed with Wizard of Oz characters, the original Wicked musical leaves the movie with some big shoes to fill. So far, however, the footage from the movie seems to prove that the adaptation is devoted to bringing the story to life with as much attention to detail as possible. In addition to its exploration of the magical and political world of Oz, it also showcases that the relationship between Glinda and Elphaba will remain front and center.

As this footage is likely only from the first of the two Wicked movies, it seems that there is much more detail to come. Because of the complicated goings-on of the plot around the two girls in the musical, the divisivedecision to adapt it into a pair of movies may end up serving the original text well. If the entire first movie follows the example of the new CinemaCon footage, both titles could prove to be packed with enough adventure and incident to justify their existence.

The first
Wicked
movie premieres in November 2024 and the second premieres a year later in November 2025.

While he was not a primary feature of the presentation, Dinklage joining the Wicked cast is also an intriguing prospect. The Game of Thrones star has previous experience appearing in onscreen musicals, having played the title role in the 2021 outing Cyrano, which featured music by Aaron and Bryce Dessner. By joining the movie’s wide-ranging array of stars, he could help the cast cohere into an unforgettable ensemble.