Universal Casts Spell On CinemaCon With Early Look At ‘Wicked Part 1’ With Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo & Michelle Yeoh

“We thought we’d give you a little taste of it,” said Universal Pictures boss about Wicked, which is in production in London with Jon Chu directing and Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in the respective roles of Glinda and Elphaba.

The rough footage, which even some Uni execs haven’t seen, showed,

Elphaba getting trained by Michelle Yeoh’s Madame Morrible. The footage was a BTS reel too with Chu exclaiming “I knew what this movie would be” and how he always wanted to do it for the big screen. Chu said that Cynthia and Ariana came in and blew the roof off. “The chemistry between Ariana and Cynthia is real and palpable,” said producer Marc Platt. A lush production design better than Into the Woods and even Oz the Great and Powerful. To recreate Emerald City, Chu planted 9 million non-CGI tulips.

The long-in-the-works Broadway adaptation which tells the untold story of the Witches of Oz is divided into two parts, Nov. 27 and Wicked Part 2 for Dec. 25, 2025 release. The pic is based on the bestselling novel by Gregory Maguire and adapted for the screen by the stage production’s book writer Winne Holzman and composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz.Jeff Goldbum, Jonathan Bailey and Ethan Slater also star. Platt is producing through Marc Platt Productions alongside David Stone, with Senior EVP Production Erik Baiers and VP Production Development Lexi Barta overseeing for the studio.