Film News

Wicked Movie Will Be Split Into Two Separate Films

Director Jon M. Chu announced the news on Twitter.

| New York City |

April 26, 2022

Cynthia Erivo will play Elphaba in the *Wicked* movie.
(© David Gordon)

Director Jon M. Chu's cinematic take on Wicked will be split into two films, the director announced on Twitter.

"As we prepared this production over the last year, it became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to wrestle the story of Wicked into a single film without doing some real damage to it," Chu posted. "So we decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one Wicked movie but TWO!!!" Read his full post below:

Special #Wicked Movie Announcement… sent from my OzPhone: pic.twitter.com/4qPpvVD4rR

— Jon M. Chu (@jonmchu) April 26, 2022

As previously announced, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo will be flying to Oz as Galinda and Elphaba in the film adaptation. Wicked writers Winnie Holzman (book) and Stephen Schwartz (score) are collaborating on the screenplay. The musical is based on Gregory Maguire's bestselling novel of the same name. Universal Pictures will release the film on consecutive Christmas holidays in 2024 and 2025.