By Bronwen K. Bradshaw 

(Image From, The Best Part of Wicked Shows the Problem With the Rest) 

Since its premiere in November, Wicked has taken audiences on a magical journey through Oz. It is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the Wicked Witch, adapted from the highly successful Broadway musical of the same name.  

The Wicked movie has been in the works since 2010, with the musical’s playwright Winnie Holzman and composer Stephen Schwartz collaborating with producer Marc Platt on creating ideas for the film. Preproduction for the film stopped in 2019 due to the release of the screen adaptation of the musical Cats. In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to film production collectively, and for a while, Wicked had no release date or director. 

Over the years, numerous potential directors were considered to undertake the musical to the big screen. However, later that year, it was announced that Director Jon M. Chu, best known for directing Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and Into the Heights (2021), was set to direct Wicked for release in 2024. After Chu was announced director, the search began for who would play the wicked witch, Elphaba, and her pink confidant, Glinda the Good. In November 2021, it was announced that Tony, Emmy, and Grammy award winner Cynthia Erivo would play Elphaba. Pop star icon Ariana Grande was set to play Glinda. Both actresses posted on social media about how grateful they were to be cast, and they left audiences on the edge of their seats to see their performances in the film when it was released.  

On Nov. 22, 2024, Wicked—detailing only the events in Act 1 from the stage production—premiered in theatres with raving reviews and acclaim from audiences. The film made over $164 million on its opening weekend, breaking box office records as the highest-grossing musical adaptation in history and the sixth highest-grossing film of 2024.  

Behind the scenes, the cast and crew worked hard to give a worthwhile performance. In an interview with NPR, Grande discusses the choice to sing live on set while shooting the film. Grande said that she and Erivo “would have felt dishonest to not sing live for this. [There] are so many beautiful Glindas and Elphabas who have done this on Broadway and the West End on tour eight shows a week. So in solidarity with them, if we have to do something — 28 takes in a row live — we will do it.”  

Cynthia Erivo even took it a step further by singing live while doing the stunts for the final song in the film, “Defying Gravity.” Erivo was fastened in a harness and suspended in the air, moving back and forth as if she were flying on her broom. In a behind the scenes video, Cynthia described how she had to shift the way she breathed in order to sing while doing the stunt and wearing a corset for her costume.   

Not only were the stunts for the film spectacular, but the work on the set and production design of the film was magnificent to behold as well. The film was mostly shot outside London at Sky Studios Elstree, where the production built the world of Oz in massive backlots. Wicked’s production designer, Nathan Crowley, describes the harrowing task of creating the world of Wicked. 

For Munchkinland, Crowley planted over 9 million tulips, cascading in rainbow fields surrounding Munchkinland, as seen at the film’s beginning. In an article for IndieWire, Crowley described how the tulips sparked life into Munchkinland. Crowley said, “We’re gonna grow tulips for the Munchkins, and we’re gonna say they are farmers, and they use color and dyes, and they sell that in markets through cloth. And once we had a reason for them to exist, the farming, the tulips became Munchkinland.”  

Crowley conceptualized the idea for the rotating library shelves used in the song “Dancing Through Life,” sung by Jonathan Bailey’s character, Fiyero, inside Shiz University.  In the same article, Crowley said, “So I built the whole library around the effects, the engineering of the wheels, so they were the building block of the entire set.” The wheels moved like rings and could move interchangeably back and forth of each other, while the ladders inside the shelves remained stagnant. Crowley’s meticulous and innovative mind brought the scene to a whole new life on the screen.  

As award season has crept up, Wicked has acquired numerous nominations, including 10 Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress, and Supporting Actress for Erivo and Grande. The film recently won the Golden Globe Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award.  

The film’s second part, Wicked: For Good, is expected to be released a year after Part 1, in November 2025. Everyone deserves a chance to fly and see how this wickedly amazing story will end.