“Wicked” Movie to be Split Into Two Films Releasing 2024, 2025

The highly-anticipated film adaptation of the musical Wicked was just revealed to be split into two films. Jon M. Chu announced this week that the first part will be released on December 25, 2024, and that the second part will debut exactly one year later on December 25, 2025.

Chu, who was behind 2021’s In the Heights, has Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo starring as the lead roles of Glinda and Elphaba, respectively, in this popular prequel story to The Wizard of Oz. Stephen Schwarts, who wrote the music and lyrics to the original 2003 Broadway musical, is adapting the screenplay alongside Winnie Holzman. Marc Platt, who produced the musical, will be producing the film, as well.

“As we prepared the production over the last year, it became impossible to wrestle the story of ‘Wicked’ into a single film without doing some real damage to it,” Chu wrote in a statement.

“As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions began to feel like fatal compromises to the source material that has entertained us all for so many years. We decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one ‘Wicked’ movie but two! With more space, we can tell the story of ‘Wicked’ as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys for these beloved characters.”

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