wicked_10

Wicked (also known as Wicked – Part 1) is a 2024 American musical fantasy film directed by Jon M. Chu and written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox. It is the first of a two-part film adaptation of the stage musical of the same name by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman, which in turn was based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire and characters from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The film stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, with Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode (in her film debut), Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Keala Settle, and Peter Dinklage in supporting roles. Set in the Land of Oz, largely before Dorothy Gale's arrival from Kansas, the plot covers the events of the musical's first act, following green-skinned Elphaba's studies as a college student at Shiz University and the beginning of her path to ultimately becoming the Wicked Witch of the West, alongside an unlikely friendship and later rivalry with a classmate who later becomes Glinda the Good.

Universal Pictures announced the adaptation in 2012 with Marc Platt as a producer. After a long development and multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chu was hired to direct, with Erivo and Grande cast in their respective roles in 2021, along with the decision to split the film into two parts. Principal photography on both films began in December 2022 in England, and was paused in July 2023 due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, eventually resuming then concluding in January 2024.

Wicked will premiere in London on November 18, 2024, with a theatrical release in the United States scheduled for November 22, 2024. The sequel, Wicked Part Two, is scheduled to be released on November 26, 2025.