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I don’t know what I expected from CinemaCon 2024’s Wicked presentation, but Universal pulled out all the stops for a movie that fans were clearly already very excited about, judging by the response in the room. Blocking off nearly a fourth of their allotted time, the studio brought out Director Jon M. Chu, as well as a large swathe of the cast including Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey and, of course, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
There was a literal light show. The Wicked cast spoke out more freely about their experiences making the movie with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo opening up about “speaking publicly” for the first time. To be clear, Ariana has talked a little about becoming Glenda for the movie and Erivo has spoken about the movie being split in two, but as Erivo said, those were just little “hints.” Now they’re able to talk in depth and they did.
We learned new details and perspectives from the cast and crew. If you weren’t excited already, I hope you will be after.
You’ve seen the Wicked trailer. Seeing that on a big screen was all color and light and darkness swirling into one stunning visual spectacle. Some of the moments were repeated from the Super Bowl trailer, like the “you’re green” comment from Glinda, but a lot of the women’s relationship was expanded out. We got to see Glinda and Elphaba being forced to share a room, we got to see as Elphaba’s powers grew and started to manifest in myriad ways. We got to see the small cracks in Glinda’s perfect facade as Elphaba gained attention. And most gloriously, we got to see them visit Oz.
We also got snippets of “Popular” and “Defying Gravity” as well. Naturally, people lost their s–t.
John Chu Says Families Will “Cherish These Performances” For Years
When speaking about the goal of why he wanted to adapt Wicked for the movies, Chu opened up about seeing Wicked in San Francisco decades ago and how that lit the fuse for him to want to make the film. His goal when creating it was as follows:
You and your kids and your kids’ kids are going to cherish these performances for years to come.
They really are bulllish. Producer Marc Platt also spoke out about finding Erivo and Grande for the movie. They looked at what seems to have been a very large swathe of applicants before landing on their two leading ladies, and the team feels both Wicked movies are going to be very important for a long time.
We knew we had to get it exactly right. We saw so many hopeful women form all over… but two women came in and claimed each of their roles. The ideal pairing. Two very gifted women who were destined to play these roles.
Cynthia Erivo And Ariana Grande Bonded Over “So Many Pairs Of Lashes.” And Brooms. Don’t Forget Brooms.
In one of the sweetest moments, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande headed onto the stage in the complementary green and pink shades favored by their two characters. This was a Wicked fashion strategy Grande and Erivo also used at the 2024 Oscars. Once they were onstage they spoke about their fandom for the musical, how Grande’s started at 15 and Cynthia’s journey started at 25 when she took herself on a “date” to see the show.
Once they landed the roles, they ultimately ended up sharing a lot of experiences together, and a cute moment came when Grande shared some of those.
I know we both felt such a tremendous responsibility to honor these women… to pour our hearts and souls and tears, so many pairs of lashes. Bruises, broken nails, brooms, wands, into these roles. … This means so much to us and to so many fans everywhere.
Erivo shared the two are “bonded for life,” and from what everyone was saying the last year of creating these two films for the big screen was intense but also led to a lot of cool experiences.
Jeff Goldblum Was Very Impressed He Got To Work On A Practical Set
As a man coming off Jurassic World: Dominion, Thor: Ragnarok, and more many of Jeff Goldblum’s big set piece movies have had a lot of green screen lately. Which is why he was so impressed with the way that Wicked was shot, an experience he says was largely practical and was notable for that reason, even though he’s gotten to do some “colorful” pictures, like “being chased by dinosaurs” and flying “into the belly of a humongous alien spaceship that was hovering over our sweet planet” before. Why was Wicked special?
I have never been a part of this particular flavor of magic that is this movie… or movies. We shot two… We got to play on sets that were actually there. Imagine sets that were constructed by human hands! And the most inventive props! …We really got to feel like we were in real time creating this wonderful thing together.
Goldblum also got to “wear a delicious long green coat” and “do some acting” so he was happy as a clam to be signed on to play the Wizard.
Michelle Yeoh Called Singing In Wicked “Terrifying”
Michelle Yeoh and Jon M. Chu got into a little bit of back-and-forth onstage as Yeoh asked the Wicked and Crazy Rich Asians director why he always seems to be casting her in somewhat unlikable rolls. Chu joked they are roles that “have facets.” Yeoh also mentioned singing was “terrifying” for her in Wicked but she did it anyway, to which the director also had a fun retort.
Yeoh: ”John even got me to sing in this movie! It was terrifying.”
Chu: “There’s nothing you can’t do. You played a literal rock in a movie.”
He was speaking about Yeoh’s turn in Everything Everywhere All At Once in which she and her onscreen daughter Stephanie Hsu do play rocks in one memorable scene.
All in all, the panel didn’t disappoint. There were light up tulips in every corner of the venue. There was new footage. There were a lot of crowd shouts and cheers! There was just enough new info from the cast and creative team to whet our palates. And there will doubtless be more coming from Wicked as we continue moving through the 2024 movie release schedule. After all, the flick will be out at Thanksgiving this year.