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Why was Wicked split into two movies? Director Jon M. Chu explains it all
Why was Wicked split into two movies? Director Jon M. Chu said it was all about “finding room.”
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To be continued.
Those three words appeared onscreen at the end of Wicked, leaving the audience to wonder when the story would continue.
Those familiar with the Broadway play might catch the fact that the Wicked film ends during the play’s act break. So, why did Universal Pictures split the film up?
Speaking with Fandango, director Jon M. Chu opened up about his decision to split the film up. “It became very clear that you could do certain things on the stage, then when you’re in a movie, you can’t just make some of those leaps. As you go into it, it just became clear we’re either going to have to cut so many things out of this movie that it wouldn’t be recognizable as Wicked anymore, or we had to give us the room.”
Once Chu made the decision, he found that it greatly benefited the story. “In that room we had opportunities to really dig into these characters and give more motivation on why certain things are happening, and why certain pivots are happening.”
However, this also meant that each movie needed to be a satisfying experience on their own. “If we’re ending on ‘Defying Gravity,’ then everything has to lead to still be satisfying as a movie. We could just see that as a movie and walk away. That was working with Cynthia [Erivo] and Elphaba, and figuring out how do we get into that character and go from her singing ‘The Wizard and I,’ to rooting for this woman who gets into school, to trying to prove herself to the Wizard, to getting to the Wizard, to having all that dissolve, and then her saying, ‘I don’t need to prove myself to anyone,’ and then rising above that.”
Splitting the films also gave Chu more ground to explore the character relationships. The director teased that Wicked Part Two will give us more insight on Elphaba and Glinda’s relationship. “That relationship with Glinda and how complicated that could be, we’ll see more of this relationship and how each of that have to rise in a different way. We needed the landscape to be honest.”
Ariana Grande echoed Chu’s sentiments, stating that splitting the movie helped open up the story. “You’ll feel that when you see it. When we saw it for the first time, we were like, ‘Thank goodness this is two films.’ It’s very satisfying as one, but what a gift that we’re going to get to see more too,” Grande said.
Wicked Part Two will be released in theaters on November 21, 2025.
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