Wicked 2024 Vegamovies: Release Date, Box Office Collection and Review
Are you ready to see one of the most iconic villain origin stories ever made it to the big screen? The Wicked movie is officially on its way.
The Tony-winning Broadway musical, a prequel to The Wizard of Oz based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, will finally hit theaters next holiday season. Wicked is being adapted for not one, but two major movies under Universal, and slowly more and more confirmed details about the films are coming out.
Wicked first debuted on Broadway in 2003, where Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel took on the roles of Glinda and Elphaba. The intertwined story of the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West takes place long before Dorothy arrives in the wonderful land of Oz. In fact, the prequel details the unlikely friendship between the two, who were witches before becoming enemies in their youth, which changed their lives and the fate of Oz forever.
If you haven't heard yet, pop megastar Ariana Grande and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo will star in the upcoming films as the witches Glinda and Elphaba, respectively, and they'll be directed by Jon M. Chu, best known for his films Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights.
There have been a lot of developments since the musical adaptation of Wicked was first announced, so we've put together everything you need to know in one guide: from the hot cast (including Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero) to the differences in the adaptation and the premise, to previews of the songs (from "Defying Gravity" to "For Good" and "Popular"), through the (many) changes in the release date and the film's exclusive preview for Super Bowl 2024.
When were the Wicked movies first announced?
Initial news of Universal's Wicked film adaptation came in 2016, with its original theatrical release scheduled for December 20, 2019. Obviously, there have been delays since then that have brought the film to its current date of 2024. But on April 26, 2022, Chu shared news that explained the reason for the long wait.
"As we prepared for production last year, it became impossible to bring the story of Wicked into a single film without doing real harm to it," he wrote in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter).
"As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions began to feel like fatal compromises with 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 but two movies! With more space, we can tell the story of Wicked the way it was meant to be told, as well as bring even more depth and surprise to the journeys of these beloved characters. Chu's two-part announcement pleased some fans while upsetting others.
On February 11, 2024, the day the first trailer was released, Wicked producer Marc Platt defended the decision to split the films to Vanity Fair. “We didn't want to make a four-hour movie and then cut out the songs. We want to satisfy the music fans,” Platt said. “Cinema allows you to create a place and a time: a university like Shiz, an extravagant mansion for the governor of Emerald City. There's so much more to explore.”
What are the Wicked movies about?
Like Gregory Maguire's book, the premise of the Wicked films follows Glinda and Elphaba as students at Shiz University, where, despite their differences, they navigate friendship, magical training, and even romance, all as they discover their identities. However, the alternate look at the world of Oz changes when Elphaba is mistakenly believed to be the "wicked" witch. The films are expected to tell the story of how she became the villain we know and explore her relationships with other beloved Oz characters.
Are there trailers and first-look photos for the Wicked movies?
After quite a bit of teasing, the first official trailer for Wicked, which you can watch above, arrived on May 15, 2025. The trailer shows us Elphaba and Glinda's first meeting, with a snippet of their popular "Witches" version playing in the background. As far as songs go, we also get a preview of "Defying Gravity" as we see the dynamic change between the two witches, as well as the introduction of the Wizard.
"Don't be afraid," Ariana Grande's Glinda says to Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba with tears in her eyes. Elphaba confidently replies, "I'm not afraid. It's the Wizard who should be afraid of me."
Universal released the second official trailer for the first part of Wicked on September 5, 2024. "Find out what happened before Dorothy came," the trailer teases before Grande's Glinda declares, "I'll tell you the whole story." The trailer gives us a first look and features Grande and Erivo's version of the fan-favorite song "For Good" appropriately mixed with "Defying Gravity."
The first teaser for Wicked arrived on February 11, 2024, via a 2024 Super Bowl prime location. The minute-long trailer gives a tantalizing first glimpse of the feel and sound of the film with colorful high-flying landscapes and pieces of ambitious visuals, all set to "challenge gravity even more." You can check out the preview below:
Are there any behind-the-scenes looks at Wicked?
Indeed, there is. On July 24, 2024, Universal released a two-minute behind-the-scenes video showing viewers how the world of Wicked was built brick-by-brick for the film. “We knew we wanted Wicked to be completely immersive,” director Jon M. Chu says in the video. “What does it feel like to be in Oz? Feel it with your fingertips? “If you want to live inside that world, you have to build it.”
The following clips show us an aerial view of the sets, including Emerald City and Munchkinland, which are hand-built as 1:1 recreations, including the infamous yellow bricks that are painted one by one. “So much of it is real. Physical and tangible settings,” Ariana Grande says, before Chu shows off the tulips that were planted in the area and the train that was built for the film.
Another video titled Celebrating Wicked was released on September 25, 2024. The video shows some behind-the-scenes footage from the film's shoot, as well as interviews with the cast and director.
Universal had also released another Wicked featurette titled Wicked - Passion Project, which featured interviews with the cast and crew about how they came to the project. The two-minute featurette includes audition scenes from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo and more, commentary from director Jon M. Chu, as well as clips from the set. You can check it out below:
When are the Wicked movies coming out?
Between schedule changes and COVID-19-related production delays, the release of the first Wicked film has been pushed back quite a bit. A few months before its 2019 release, Universal announced that the film had been postponed to December 22, 2021, although the pandemic pushed that date back as well. The next date was set for Wicked: Part 1 to December 25, 2024 and Part 2 to December 25, 2025.
However, both dates were pushed back during the spring and summer of 2023. On June 20, 2023, Deadline reported that the first film was set to release in theaters on November 27, 2024, just in time for the action holiday of Thanksgiving. The pub also noted that the second installment would premiere almost a year later, on November 26, 2025. However, things changed again in 2024.
On July 1, 2024, Jon M. Chu himself announced that the release date for the first Wicked film had been pushed back, setting the final official release for November 22, 2024. “DAY. EARLIER!!!! LET’S GO!!!”, Chu announced on X.
With the new November 22 date, Wicked, which was going to compete directly with Disney’s Moana 2, will now do so in the United States with Gladiator II starring Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal. Of course, the memes have already started to arrive, many of them referencing last year’s Barbenheimer and making jokes about “gladiced” and “defying gladity”.
