After much anticipation, the long-awaited Wicked trailer, which you can watch below, premiered at the Super Bowl. The movie, based on the beloved Broadway show, (which was based on the much darker novel by Gregory Maguire), will be split into two parts. Part One will be released on November 27. The first trailer, a minute-long teaser, shows clips of Elphaba and G[a]linda, played, respectively, by Cythia Erivo and Ariana Grande, set to a sampling of “Defying Gravity.” It also reveals Michelle Yeoh as Madam Morrible, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard. SpongeBob Sidepiece (Ethan Slater) is not in it, but I didn’t expect to see Boz or Nessa’s characters in a teaser for the first half of the musical, as their storylines are a big catalyst in Act II.
The first teaser trailer for the movie musical Wicked: Part One debuted during Super Bowl Sunday, showing the first footage of Cynthia Erivo as the witchy Elphaba and Ariana Grande as bubbly Glinda.
Directed by Jon M. Chu, who also brought In the Heights from stage to screen in 2021, Wicked will be a two-part adaptation of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s Tony-winning Broadway show. Part Two is set to be released Nov. 26, 2025.
A prequel to the events of The Wizard of Oz, Wicked is the origin story of “a green-skinned woman,” the film’s logline states, who “becomes the Wicked Witch of the West.” Its source material is Gregory Maguire’s hit 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Joining Erivo, 37, as that green-skinned heroine and Grande, 30, as her schoolmate-turned-best-friend is Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, Marissa Bode as Nessarose, Bowen Yang as Pfannee, Keala Settle as Miss Coddle, Ethan Slater as Boq, and Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible.
“This movie has everything: giant musical numbers, big action pieces,” Chu told the audience at CinemaCon 2023 in April, introducing first-look footage. “And using a classic story you all know, The Wizard of Oz. At the end of the day, it’s actually not about those things. It’s about change and [how] it’s necessary for things to get better.”
The musical’s original Broadway cast included Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda and Idina Menzel as Elphaba. The latter actress earned one of the production’s three Tony Awards, for leading actress in a musical.
In 2022 around the time it was filming, Erivo told Entertainment Tonight that the Wicked film adaptation would be “unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.”
She continued, “I think we’re going to enjoy the magic of it. We’re going to try and put our own spin on what we know already and show you a story about two women [who] are sisters.”.
The teaser itself is fine, I guess. I don’t know, guys. I’m curious to hear what y’all think. While I have no doubt that Erivo will be a spectacular Elphaba – she sounds great in the trailer! – and that Yeoh will bring it as Madam M, I fully admit that I am skeptical about Ariana’s Glinda. It’s not the acting, it’s the vocals and general lack of enunciation. We didn’t get much from her in the teaser, so I will refrain from judgment until we see a full trailer. I just don’t want another Russell Crowe situation. But yeah, I don’t know how I feel about this whole thing overall. Also, I had completely forgotten that it would be two parts. I’m guessing that they split the movies up to correspond with each act?
And now, if I may, let me drop a story about that one time that my friend and I went into NYC on a snow day and got reasonably-priced orchestra tickets to see Wicked. It was Friday, January 7, 2005. That performance also happened to be the last full show Idina Menzel did before falling through the trap door during the following performance, a day before she was supposed to end her run as the OG Elphaba. We also stood outside of the stage door and met Joey McIntyre. It blows my mind that this happened almost 20 years ago. What I mean to say here is that I have tentatively high hopes that this movie will be good.