Wicked Movie Adds Saturday Night Live's Bowen Yang to Cast
The long-gestating movie adaptation of Wicked had found its latest cast members. On Friday, it was revealed that Saturday Night Live's Bowen Yang, who has also appeared in Bros and Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, has been cast in the upcoming film. Yang and Lockwood & Co's Bronwyn James will be portraying Pfannee and ShenShen, classmates of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande) at Shiz University. Also joining the cast are newcomer Marissa Bode as Elphaba's sister Nessarose, Keala Settle as Miss Coddle, Aaron Teoh as Avaric and Colin Michael Carmichael as Professor Nikidik.
They join a cast that also includes Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Ethan Slater as Boq, and Jeff Goldblum as The Wizard.
What is Wicked about?
Wicked is a prequel to the iconic events of The Wizard of Oz, and tells the story of two unlikely friends, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (whose name later changes to Glinda the Good Witch), who struggle through opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace.
The musical, which first debuted on Broadway in 2003, has become a beloved part of musical theater, ultimately grossing over $1 billion in total Broadway revenue in 2016. The original production of Wicked featured Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, both of whom had been among the wishlist fans have had for the movie adaptation.
When will the Wicked movie premiere?
Wicked will be split into a two-part movie saga, the first of which will arrive on December 25, 2024, and the second of which will arrive on December 25, 2025.
"Here's what happened: As we prepared the production over the last year, it became impossible to wrestle the story of Wicked into a single film without doing some real damage to it," director Jon M. Chu wrote in a statement when the decision to split it into two films was announced. "As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions began to feel like fatal compromises to 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' movie but two! With more space, we can tell the story of 'Wicked' as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys for these beloved characters."
Are you excited for the Wicked movie? What do you think of these new cast members? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!