Wicked Strikes Box Offices

By Annie Bova

Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, which tells the story of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, and her story when she attended Shiz University, where she met her first enemy, but soon-to-be best friend G(a)linda. The musical follows their journey as they face many challenges fitting in, as well as competing for a mutual guy, Fiyero. 

Universal chose the director, John M. Chu to portray this Broadway musical into a film fans would love. He took great precautions in casting the right ladies to play his characters. He chose Tony Winner, Cynthia Erivo to portray Elphaba, while Grammy Winner, Arianna Grande took on Galinda. While both received the original actresses' blessings for this part, they put their own spin on the characters. Cynthia had to decide how she would perform the iconic song, “Defying Gravity”, and how she would keep the watchers entertained and wanting to come back to enjoy the scene again. 

Fans fell in love with the movie as Chu casted actors perfect for the roles available. Jonathan Bailey plays Fiyero, as he is the ideal role for the romantic hero Elphaba and Glinda fall in love with. Michelle Yeoh plays Madam Morrible, who is the manipulative advisor to the wizard, who is portrayed by Jeff Goldblum. 

John M. Chu was in awe of the cast's work on this project, as they performed even better than he could have imagined. They began filming in London in November 2022 and wrapped up their principal photography in January 2024. He said in an interview, "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." They have already wrapped filming for part 2 of the movie which will be released in November 2025. They split the musical into 2 parts, so they could tell the story for what it was, and portray the characters in the respect they deserved.