Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo by Dana Scruggs for The New York Times November 2024

Wicked (also known as Wicked: Part One) is an upcoming American epic musical fantasy film directed by Jon M. Chu and written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox. It is the first of a two-part film adaptation of the stage musical of the same name by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman, which in turn was based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire and characters from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The film stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, with Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode (in her film debut), Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Keala Settle, and Peter Dinklage in supporting roles. Set in the Land of Oz, largely before Dorothy Gale's arrival from Kansas, the plot covers the events of the musical's first act, following green-skinned Elphaba's studies at Shiz University and the beginning of her path to ultimately becoming the Wicked Witch of the West, alongside an unlikely friendship and later rivalry with a classmate who later becomes Glinda the Good.