Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo to Star in Wicked Musical Movie

At long last, Wicked is making its way from the stage to the big screen, and Universal’s highly anticipated musical adaptation has finally named its leads. Glinda and Elphaba are two of the most beloved Broadway characters in recent memory, so fans have been anxious to see which actresses would land the roles for the screen adaptation. On Thursday evening, it was revealed that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo will be the film’s two leads.

Grande will be playing Glinda, the character made famous by Kristin Chenowith, while Erivo is taking on the role of Elphaba, the witch originally played by Idina Menzel. Both Chenoweth and Menzel were nominated for the Best Actress Tony award after the show’s Broadway debut in 2003, with Menzel ultimately taking home the prize.

Universal’s screen adaptation of Wicked is being directed by John M. Chu, who recently received acclaim for his feature take on Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights earlier this year. Chu, Grande, and Erivo all took to social media on Thursday night to announce the casting news. Each of the actresses sent their new co-star flowers, along with the message, “Pink Goes Good With Green.”

After breaking out on the Nickelodeon series Victorious, Ariana Grande has become a household name over the last several years. In addition to winning two Grammy awards, each of Grande’s albums has gone platinum and her songs have been streamed over 90 billion times.

Erivo broke onto the scene in 2015 with her leading role in The Color Purple on Broadway. She won both a Grammy and a Tony for her work in the musical, and has since gone on to star in quite a few notable TV and film projects. She showed off both her acting and vocal range in Bad Times at the El Royale and on the TV series Genius, where she played music icon Aretha Franklin. Erivo also played Harriet Tubman in 2019’s Harriet and starred in 2018’s Widows alongside Viola Davis.

The rest of the cast of Universal’s Wicked has yet to be announced, but the entire production hinged on the casting of Glinda and Elphaba. Now that the leads have been announced, the rest of the production can start falling into place.

What do you think of the new Glinda and Elphaba casting in Universal’s Wicked? Let us know in the comments!