On Wednesday, the first full-length trailer dropped for part one of the Wicked movies. The trailer, which you can watch below, basically shows a lot of scenes from Act I of the musical, which makes sense, since the first movie is probably all of Act I. In fact, the last shot of the trailer is of Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba saying the, “It’s the Wizard who should be afraid of me” line as the music for the end of Act I showstopper “Defying Gravity” plays. We also finally get a sample of Ariana Grande singing Glinda’s “Popular.” Michelle Yeoh (Madame Morrible), Jeff Goldblum (The Wizard), and Jonathan Bailey (Fiyero) are featured in the trailer as well, although only the first two are shown prominently.
The trailer features Ariana Grande’s Glinda and Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba forging a friendship after meeting at Shiz University.
“You’re the one the wizard has been waiting for,” Michelle Yeoh, as headmistress Madame Morrible, says as she works with Elphaba.
Things then take a dark turn when Glinda gives Elphaba a black hat to wear and Elphaba encourages her to accompany her on a trip to Emerald City. Elphaba seems to sense trouble in Oz, while the Wizard of Oz — played by Jeff Goldblum — offers some strong words.
“The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy,” he says over images Elphaba, who remains loyal to herself.
“I’m not afraid. It’s the Wizard who should be afraid of me,” she says shortly before the trailer ends.
In the movie, Erivo plays Elphaba, “a young woman, misunderstood because of her unusual green skin, who has yet to discover her true power,” according to a Universal press release about the film. Grande portrays Glinda, “a popular young woman, gilded by privilege and ambition, who has yet to discover her true heart.”
The pair become friends only to see their lives go in different directions after they meet The Wizard of Oz.
“Glinda’s unflinching desire for popularity sees her seduced by power, while Elphaba’s determination to remain true to herself, and to those around her, will have unexpected and shocking consequences on her future,” the release said.
“Wicked,” based on the Gregory McGuire book of the same name that became the basis for a hit Broadway musical, is directed by Jon M. Chu, who helmed “Crazy Rich Asians” and “In the Heights.”
The movie also stars Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, Bowen Yang and Peter Dinklage. The movie is scheduled to be released Nov. 27, with “Wicked Part Two” due to come out Nov. 26, 2025. Erivo and Grande were filled with emotions when they found out they had been cast in the film.
Alright, thoughts on the trailer? I have no doubt Cynthia will do a great job as Elphaba and the trailer reaffirms that she definitely has the vocal chops for the role. The Wizard saying, “The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy” really hit home how slimy he is. Anyway, how are we feeling about Ariana? I suppose from what we saw, it’s not as bad as I was imagining. Is it enough to overlook how much her personal issues have overshadowed the film, though? “Popular” is more about having the attitude than the vocals but at least I could understand every word she was saying. So, there’s that! Oh, and maybe it’s just me, but the dorm scene reminded me so much of Wednesday and Enid’s room in Wednesday!
Okay, fine, I’m feeling a lot more enthused about this movie than I was after the teaser. I just really, really wish that it wasn’t two parts. If Les Mis can tell their story in one movie, anyone can.
Photos are screenshots from YouTube and via Instagram
Wicked is one of my all time favorites and I’m truly having a hard time getting excited because I loathe Ariana Grande and don’t want to support her projects. Ugh.
I was afraid it was just me. The trailer really drove home for me how difficult it would be to watch 3 hours of AG. And it’s a shame because it looks beautifully rendered and I have high hopes for everyone else.
+1 (and that was before all the Spong Bob nonsense).
I’m forever going to think of him as
“Spong Bob” with that typo now.
Hard same. I read the book, saw the musical, overplayed the soundtrack etc. and the minute she was cast my heart broke. And there’s no reason for this movie to be split in two. Even with the book add-ins.
When I saw the trailer all I kept thinking was: Cynthia is acting. Ariana is imitating.
I think most of yall are clouded by your biases related to the cheating scandal. I felt the complete opposite from you. I kind of felt like CE was just … there. I was actually shocked by how good Ariana was. That scene with Bowen Yang where she was talking about her granny’s hat actually made me laugh out loud.
@Grant I’ve never been a fan of hers. Well before the cheating scandal or licking donuts or whatever. I’ve seen her in different productions over the years and found her to be a terrible actress and extremely difficult to like. Glinda should be endearing even with her superiority complex.
Again it goes back to Cynthia making the role her own. And all Ariana seems to be doing is imitate Kristen.
Ariana’s acting shown in the teaser was kind of ‘meh’. Its not amazing like the rest of the ensemble, but its not exactly at their level. You can tell she’s the weak one of the ensemble. I’d think that even if I didn’t know about her personal life.
Not all singers can be actors. She still acts like she’s still on a Disney kids show. Disney kids show have a specific kind of acting and she’s doing that here.
Glinda isn’t a good witch and she’s just a b*tch! Lol, not a hard role for Ariana Grande to play a woman who f*cks over another woman cuz she doesn’t get what she wants. Not watching this movie & note giving Ariana one red cent of my money!
I think it looks amazing, despite Ariana Grande (although maybe she’ll end up surprising us?) but I absolutely do not think it needed to be two movies. I feel like there would be a huge turnout for one Wicked movie, and I still think the first movie is going to do really well. But I think it will be hard to keep that momentum up for a year.
Sure, it COULD have been made in one movie, but it’s all about the money they can make from this. I’ve even heard they were trying to make it into three. Greed ruins most art these days.
I agree. I was looking forward to seeing it, I like the musical, but I have no desire to go watch half a movie and then wait a year for the other half, when I’ve already seen the whole musical.
I had no idea they were breaking it into 2, I don’t understand it at all, I think it’s a foolish decision and we’re going to be reading articles about how it was such a big flop.
I also don’t really like Arianna very much, I don’t think she was a good choice for the role, and I find her blonde look weirdly unsettling.
@Lucy2 Agreed! The light hair and makeup look really odd, it’s all I could focus on during the trailer. I loved the musical, but found the books really depressing.
Unless they create way more scenes with Jonathan Bailey as fiyero we don’t need two parts.
As far as I can see, they gave almost the whole story away in the trailer. So yes, it could have been accomplished in one film.
I came to say this exact thing. We just watched all the plot points of the entire movie.
I’ve read the book and was lucky enough to see the original cast on Broadway (still amazes me to say that😊) I actually run to the Wicked soundtrack.. so needless to say I’m looking forward to this but know I will probably be disappointed. Great books and Broadway musicals never transfer to the movie screen well imo anyways. So I will enjoy it for what it is. Also the book and the musical are so vastly different, book was definitely for adults.
I was wondering about that… I just recently read the book but I haven’t seen the musical, and I’m barely recognizing any of the story in that trailer.
My guess is that they are going to add a lot of book material. Have not seen the musical, did read the book and found it a slog. That may have been because I had to read it for a fairy tales class. Nothing like having a short deadline to read a long book to make you realize how much detail about the political situation in Oz the book goes into
Contemporary Broadway is not my jam, so I’ll be skipping
Tried the book years ago as a teen, read a few chapters and quit. Watched the musical in DC, paid attention to the performance and music, (not the story) and loved it! My favorite part was the flying monkeys’ acrobatics/dancing. Probably won’t watch the movie. Don’t want it to ruin my memories of the musical, if that makes sense.
Same reason I watched the Cats musical and listened to the songs on repeat but ignored the movie.
I was so confused all those years ago that Wicked was such a bit hit on Broadway & all these little kids were seeing it. I read the book! So I’m guessing the orgy was left out of the musical???
I am thinking that financially it makes sense to get more than one movie out of it if there’s more story to tell because they spend so much on the set and costumes etc. I’m excited to see it. I appreciate that she’s been laying low and waiting for people to forget the messiness, I think it was effective and hopefully felt good for her to be out of the spotlight for a bit.
Is she laying low though? She released a new song that’s quite popular that is clearly all a diss at Sponge Bob’s ex. It is so not a good look for her. And she has been at a lot of award shows as of late.
She’s definitely been out of the tabloids and all is quiet on the SpongeBob front so I think her PR people are doing their job. She did just release a new album to rapturous acclaim though and I must say, it’s a pretty fantastic pop record.
It looks slightly less like a Skittles commercial this time, which is good, but it is still not doing much for me.
The two movies is likely a mistake. It’s a pure money choice, not about what’s good for the story.
Cynthia E. looks fantastic. Not sure yet about Ariana. In the original stage version, Kristen Chenowith played Glinda with a cheeky wink of humor to the audience and the movie version/Ariana is playing her straight, so I’m not a fan of her character. Two movies are a money grab, indeed. Why not just one very classic?
This looks amazing and I love the show so will go see – the main cast look amazing and are very talented thou I will admit that I wasn’t sold on Ariana Grande being cast as Galinda but after seeing this I think she might surprise me.
Is anyone else hearing something odd with Ariana’s voice in the trailer? It’s like she’s doing a “voice”, and trying not to sound like herself or Kristen Chenowith but it seems very inconsistent to me. I like some of her music but her overall attitude is off putting and it’s rubbing off on the show. Like, if there was someone else in that role I’d be a lot more excited about it. I definitely think it could have been one movie. But on a positive note…wooooo for Jonathan Bailey!
agreed on the voice! as soon as AG started speaking I was like “there’s so way I could handle over 2 hours of this.” very squeaky
In some parts it sounds like she’s mimicking Kristen Chenowith’s southern drawl, but other times it’s just hard to understand her because she’s kind of whisper talking. I have never seen the show so I don’t know if Kristen has her normal southern accent in it, but I definitely heard what sounded like a bad southern accent come out of Arianna’s mouth in the trailer.
Yes that’s it! There is an occasional and inconsistent southern twang but only on certain words. It sounds very odd to me.
It reminded me of the ‘MGM voice’ studios expected of women back in the day. The whisper-talking of Marilyn Monroe is the voice at its most extreme, but they all did it, particularly in musicals.
From the trailer, it looks like Cynthia is doing all the heavy dramatic lifting even though Ariana seems to be doing all the vocals in the trailer. I wonder if Ariana will get pissy when Cynthia gets all the acclaim and awards.
They should’ve just done it as one long film. The trailer is boring and poorly paced precisely because it doesn’t have a full summary to give to the audience. If you didn’t know the story already, I think you’d be a little lost.
One thing I am surprised about is that more people aren’t kicking off more about Fiyero. I like Johnathan Bailey, but Fiyero is…not white in the book. Like, in a way that’s rather plot-relevant to the racism and prejudice themes in the story. I was shocked when I saw they’d cast a white actor in the role. It’s rather pointless whitewashing.
As someone who didn’t love the musical as much as I felt like I should have? This actually looks good. It’s a very theatrical show, one that needs great voices and performances but can also benefit from the kind of visuals film can provide. The film had the opportunity to create a world and it seems to have done that.
I don’t care for Ariana’s music and was very put off by the cheating with a married castmate (with a baby) thing. That said, I think she seems well suited to the role. She’s always had talent. And Cynthia looks and sounds great.
so strange i saw this in London and did not like it, i don’t even really remember the story or any of the songs thats how uninteresting it was to me lol…I then tried to read the book and got literally 15 pages in and lost interest and gave the book away.
I just think its fascinating how many people LOVE this story/musical and I just don’t get it…curious how big fans will like this version overall.
I actually liked the book a lot but couldn’t get into the musical, which sanitized a lot of the more mature content from the novel. It is a fairly tragic story, though, so I can see why that doesn’t really gel for a lot of people. The musical had to radically change the story in the second half to make it a lot more upbeat.
I listened to the book on CD in my car on some multi-state drive. It took a couple-three, maybe even four, CDs to get into it, but then I was hooked! It’s a long book.
I loved the Broadway musical, so I’ll definitely see this, but it’s really frustrating that they split it into two movies, with releases a year apart.
I love broadway musicals, but can’t stand AG. This is a hard NO for me strictly because of AG (and the money grubbing split), but CE seems amazing and I hope she thrives.
This looks fantastic and Ariana was the best part of the trailer IMO. I was on the fence but now I’m in.
And the ppl still bringing up the cheating… yall realize Angelina Jolie also broke up a marriage too, right?
So? I don’t support what Angie did but she’s light years better than Ariana who went after a married father and screwed over a postpartum woman. and isn’t Ariana a serial cheater ? Her songs sound like she is
It is hard to see her without seeing all of this
all the best songs are I the first half, unless they go out of order, I dont know why I would need to see the second half. the second half is where they tie it in to the oz material and it’s a little clunky imo but works on stage because of the spectacle of it all.
also Ariana seems to playing it w/o any camp or humor and kind of almost anemic like the most delicate flower in oz. im sure that is how she was directed and not her choice. but im not into it.
I don’t mean to keep commenting on this but these comments make me feel like I watched a completely different trailer. No camp or humor? The only comedy in the trailer was from Glinda, like the hat scene or when Elphaba asks Glinda to go to Oz with her. I thought her portrayal so far reads very campy with the same sort of cheeky wink that Kristen Cheno had when she originated the role on Broadway.
I am going to hold judgement; I mean people didn’t ask for two Dune movies. And that turned out to be a huge blockbuster. For a book series that was said for years could never translate well into movies.
I loved Wicked the Broadway show, I am going to root for it. Just don’t be like Cats! (sorry if you loved it, i hated it my mom loved it) our war continues on that one.
I’m not an Arianna Grande fan but I’m not trying to be her friend, I just want to see what she does with the role. If you did hard enough you can always find a reason not to like someone or you realize they’re kind of a trash person. If we do that, we’d never leave our homes, go anywhere or talk to anyone. I mean, are we going to torch and pitchfork her? I’m going to watch the movie, I’ve seen the show twice and I LOVE Cynthia Erivo , Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh. No one is perfect and she isn’t my friend. Just keep swimming. Maybe they’ll stay together, maybe they won’t or maybe they’ll end up together and punishing each other far beyond what anyone can imagine. Just keep swimming.
Yes we are all flawed. But it is also ok to have standards. Especially for what and who we are willing to suspend reality around.
It would be one thing if Arianna indicated a shred of sympathy or contrition for ruining lives. But she doesn’t so I personally cannnot get past it when I look at her.