Wicked

Wicked (titled onscreen as Wicked: Part I) 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 Schwartzand Holzman, which was loosely based on Gregory Maguire‘s 1995 novel, a reimagining of the Oz books and the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. 

The film stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp and Ariana Grande^[b] as Glinda Upland, with Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum in supporting roles. Set in the Land of Oz, before Dorothy Gale‘s arrival from Kansas, its plot follows Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, and her friendship with her classmate Galinda, who becomes Glinda the Good.

Universal Pictures and Marc Platt, who both produced the stage musical, announced the 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 to avoid cutting plot points and expand the characters’ journeys and relationships. Principal photography 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, Australia, on November 3, 2024, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 22. It received positive reviews from critics, was named one of the best films of 2024 by the American Film Institute and won Best Film at the National Board of Review. Its accoladesinclude ten nominations at the 97th Academy Awards(including Best Picture, Best Actress for Erivo, and Best Supporting Actress for Grande), seven at the 78th British Academy Film Awards (winning two), eleven at the 30th Critics’ Choice Awards (winning three), and a record-tying five at the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards. The film also won Cinematic and Box Office Achievement at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards. It has grossed $727.9 millionworldwide on a $150 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing Oz film, the highest-grossing musical film adaptation of all time, Universal Pictures’ nineteenth-highest-grossing film, and the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2024. The sequel, Wicked: For Good, is scheduled for release on November 21, 2025.