Cynthia Erivo Returning for New Wicked Project We Didn’t See Coming

Actor Cynthia Erivo has introduced a new generation of fans to Wicked on the big screen, and now she’s inviting them to dig deeper into the novel as well. On Tuesday, Recorded Books announced that Erivo has narrated a new audiobook version of Wicked by Gregory Maguire, which will go on sale on July 1st. It is available now for pre-order on the digital platforms Audible, Apple Books, and Google Play. This new production should give fans enough time to check out the original story before Wicked: For Good hits theaters in November, with Erivo belting out her final few songs as Elphaba.

“I’m incredibly excited to narrate Wicked, especially after having had the privilege of portraying Elphaba on screen,” Erivo said in a statement published by Variety. “I feel deeply connected to Elphaba. We have been on quite the journey together, and now I’m eager to begin an adventure with her whilst exploring the full world of Wicked and its myriad of other characters in the audiobook. I’m looking forward to bringing this incredible story to life in a new way for listeners, and I hope it resonates as deeply with them as I know it will with me.”

The land of Oz has been through a lot of iterations in a lot of different mediums now, but it’s exciting to see the movie helping to support the book. The story started in L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900. Baum would go on to write 14 more of these novels, and four more books’ worth of short stories, all before 1920. The first novel was adapted into the acclaimed 1939 movie, though its tone was slightly lighter and more whimsical than the book.

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Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Maguire was published in 1995. Maguire intended to write a darker story set in Oz, targeting an adult audience. Along the way he also explored how the story’s legacy had been changed by the 1939 movie, and other reinterpretations over the course of a century. Maguire’s novel was adapted into a Broadway musical that debuted in 2003 to great critical acclaim.

Erivo’s movie is a film adaptation of that musical, so the story has been through a lot of hands to get to this point. Erivo is not the first star of an adaptation to narrate an audiobook of the original work — Rosamund Pike is currently narrating new renditions of The Wheel of Time series as the TV show airs, and Andy Serkis narrated several J.R.R. Tolkien books after The Lord of the Rings movies premiered, for example.

For those interested, services like Audible may be the simplest way to find Erivo’s new performance of Wicked, but there are other options as well. Audiobooks are still sold in hard copies, which can be a good way to avoid the restrictions of proprietary apps and access your content on different devices. You can also reach out to your public library now to express your interest in this book. They will be able to order digital copies available to borrow through apps like Libby and Palace, without having to physically visit the library. Previous copies of Wicked and Maguire’s other books are available now.