Wicked (2024 film)
Wicked is a 2024 American musical fantasy film directed by Jon M. Chu and written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox. It adapts the first act of the 2003 stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman, which was loosely based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel, a re-imagining of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande star as Elphaba Thropp and Glinda Upland, while Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum appear in supporting roles. Set in the Land of Oz before the events of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the film explores the early relationship between Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, and her schoolmate Galinda, who becomes Glinda the Good.
Universal Pictures and Marc Platt, who both produced the stage musical, announced the film adaptation in 2012. After a long development and multiple delays, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chu was hired to direct, with Erivo and Grande cast in 2021. The adaptation was split into two parts to avoid omitting plot points and further develop the characters. Principal photography on both films began in England in December 2022, was interrupted in July 2023 by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, and resumed and concluded in January 2024.
Wicked premiered at the State Theatre in Sydney on November 3, 2024, and was released in the United States on November 22. It was critically and commercially successful, grossing worldwide on a budget and becoming the highest-grossing Oz film, the highest-grossing musical film adaptation, and the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2024. Elle and Today declared the film a pop culture phenomenon, while Collider and The Washington Post listed it as one of the best musical films of the 21st century. Among its various accolades, Wicked earned ten nominations at the 97th Academy Awards, winning Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. It also received three awards from the National Board of Review and was listed among the top ten films of 2024 by the American Film Institute. The sequel, Wicked: For Good, was released on November 21, 2025.
Plot
In the Land of Oz, Glinda the Good joins the citizens of Munchkinland as they celebrate the death of the Wicked Witch of the West. When asked whether wickedness is inherent or learned, Glinda explains that the Witch was the product of an affair between Governor Thropp's wife Melena and a mysterious traveling salesman. The salesman offered Melena a green elixir, causing the Witch to be born with green skin. Maligned from birth for her skin and impulsive use of magical powers, the Witch fostered a wish to meet the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the ruler of Oz famed for his power to grant wishes. When the Munchkins ask if Glinda was friends with the Witch, she reflects on their relationship back at school.Years earlier, green-skinned Elphaba Thropp escorts younger sister Nessarose on her first day at Shiz University. Nessarose's paraplegia causes the staff to patronise her, prompting an emotional outburst of Elphaba's powers. Shiz's Dean of Sorcery Studies, Madame Morrible, offers to enroll and privately tutor Elphaba in sorcery. She accepts, hoping she can fulfill her dream of working with the Wizard. Elphaba clashes constantly with her roommate, the popular Galinda Upland, who longs to become Morrible's student.
Elphaba follows the history professor, Dr. Dillamond, a talking goat who faces discrimination as one of Shiz's last Animal professors, to a meeting of Animals off-campus. Learning the Animals are somehow losing their ability to speak, Elphaba assures Dillamond the Wizard will set it right. Rebellious prince and transfer student Fiyero Tigelaar takes a group of students to a party at the Ozdust Ballroom nightclub. Boq Woodsman, a Munchkin, asks Galinda to accompany him; to ensure she can attend with Fiyero, Galinda convinces him to invite Nessarose instead. Nessarose is overjoyed, and in thanks, Elphaba convinces Morrible to allow Galinda to study sorcery as well. When she is ridiculed at the Ozdust for wearing an ugly black hat gifted by Galinda as a practical joke, a remorseful Galinda dances with her and the two begin to bond.
When Dillamond informs the class that Animals are no longer allowed to teach at Shiz, he is forcibly removed from the classroom and replaced by the unscrupulous Professor Nikidik who demonstrates a cage containing a frightened lion cub, designed to prevent Animals from learning to speak. Elphaba angrily spins poppy dust over the room, and escapes with Fiyero when the class falls unconscious. They release the cub into the forest and Elphaba laments her unrequited feelings for Fiyero, who has chosen Galinda.
Elphaba receives an invitation from the Wizard, made aware of her powers by Morrible. She arrives in the Emerald City with Galinda, now calling herself "Glinda" in misguided solidarity with Dillamond, who constantly mispronounced her name. Their meeting with the Wizard, in which they're surprised to learn he's an ordinary man, is witnessed by Morrible. They urge Elphaba to cast a levitation spell from the sacred Grimmerie, a spellbook that only powerful sorcerers can read and comprehend, causing the Wizard's monkey guards to painfully sprout wings. As the Wizard and Morrible rejoice over their newfound ability to use the monkeys as spies, Elphaba realizes that they are the ones behind the Animals' oppression and that the fraudulent Wizard, unable to read the Grimmerie and lacking real magic of his own, used her to subjugate them further. A horrified Elphaba seizes the Grimmerie and flees.
Glinda follows Elphaba, who refuses to apologize to the Wizard as Morrible denounces her to all of Oz. Elphaba tries to escape the Emerald City in the Wizard's hot air balloon, but the way up is barred and the balloon burns up. High in a palace attic, Elphaba repeats the levitation spell on a broom. She urges Glinda to come with her, but Glinda chooses to remain behind. The two share an emotional farewell before Elphaba flies west. Fiyero leaves Shiz on horseback amidst a mass evacuation while Governor Thropp suffers a heart attack when he and Nessarose receive the news.
Cast
Robin Guiver plays Chistery, the leader of the Wizard's monkey army and one of the winged monkeys. Stephen Stanton voices Fiyero's Horse.Multiple cameos take place during the "One Short Day" sequence. Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, who starred as Elphaba and Glinda in the original Broadway production of the stage musical, portray the leading members of the Emerald City Players. Michael McCorry Rose, who also played Fiyero in the Broadway production, appears as the Wiz-O-Mania narrator. Winnie Holzman, who wrote both the script for the stage musical and the film, appears as an audience member who exclaims, "He can read it ! He must be a Wizard!", while composer Stephen Schwartz appears as the Emerald City Guard, who announces to Elphaba and Galinda that "the Wizard will see you now". Adam James and Alice Fearn appear briefly as Galinda's parents, nicknamed "Popsicle" and "Momsie" by Galinda.
Production
Pre-production
In the 1990s, Universal Pictures received a pitch from actress Demi Moore, producer Suzanne Todd, and writer Linda Woolverton for a film adaptation of Gregory Maguire's Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West — a revisionist novel to L. Frank Baum's 1900 story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Other actresses who had expressed interest in adapting the novel included Whoopi Goldberg, Claire Danes, Salma Hayek, and Laurie Metcalf, and they had also been considered for the lead roles along with Michelle Pfeiffer, Emma Thompson, and Nicole Kidman. Woolverton had been hired to write the screenplay, and Robert Zemeckis was considered a potential director.However, by 1998, composer Stephen Schwartz successfully persuaded Universal and then-head of production Marc Platt to adapt the novel as a stage musical, with Winnie Holzman joining as scriptwriter. The musical, titled Wicked, opened on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre in 2003. The fourth-longest-running Broadway show in history, the musical has won three Tony Awards. The original Broadway production starred Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda.
In 2011, Universal began making plans for a film adaptation of the musical. Chenoweth, Menzel, Lea Michele, and Amy Adams were all rumored to be potential leads, Holzman and Schwartz were rumored as potential writers, and J. J. Abrams, Rob Marshall, James Mangold, and Ryan Murphy were all mentioned as possible candidates for director. In 2012, after the screen success of Les Misérables, Platt announced that the film was going ahead, later confirming it was aiming for a 2016 release. After a long development, Universal announced in 2016 that Wicked would be released in theatres on December 20, 2019, with Stephen Daldry directing. Daldry was reported considering Lady Gaga and Shawn Mendes for the roles of Elphaba and Fiyero. By 2024, Holzman was credited as the sole writer. In August 2024, it was determined by the Writers Guild of America that Dana Fox collaborated with Holzman on the screenplay, and that Craig Mazin contributed additional literary material. Like the stage musical, the script includes made-up words such as "braverism", "hideoteous", and "confusifying", giving the Land of Oz its own "Ozian" language.
In May 2017, Schwartz said Wicked would feature "at least two" new songs. On August 31, 2018, Universal put it on hold to accommodate its production schedule, and gave the film adaptation of Cats the release date formerly held by Wicked. On February 8, 2019, Universal announced a new release date of December 22, 2021. On April 1, 2020, Universal put Wicked on hold again due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and gave Sing 2 the 2021 release date. On October 20, 2020, it was announced that Daldry had left the production due to scheduling conflicts. On February 2, 2021, it was announced that Jon M. Chu would take over as director. In August 2021, Alice Brooks was confirmed as the cinematographer.