Whenever we talk about cinema and the golden age of it, we are instantly transported to the 20th century. The first blockbuster the world ever witnessed was the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz which was based on 1920 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum. It has been almost 85 years since the film’s release, and cinema has evolved so much but still there is no one who denies what a classic the film is. What is hard to believe is that in so many years there have been no attempts at making sequel or a remake of the film. Well, but not anymore. We all know that we’re going to get a prequel of the film called Wicked and here is everything we know about it.
Wicked Movie Plot, Cast, and Crew
The new prequel is based on the Broadway musical Wicked and the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Wicked started as a prequel and has now been divided into two parts, the first part of which will release later this year in November. The film stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp, Ariana Grande as Glinda Upland, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar, Jeff Goldblum as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, and Bowen Yang as Pfannee.
The film is directed by John M. Chu and is distributed by Universal Pictures. The plot of the film will be more or less be a mixture of the Broadway play and the book. We can expect the basic premise of the film to be about Elphaba and Galinda’s friendship. The plot summary or synopsis available for the film is: In an alternate look at the land of Oz, the true heroine is wrongfully cast as the “wicked” witch and actually turns out to be a freedom fighter who battles against the wizard for her homeland.
Wicked Movie Trailer and Release Date!
If and when the trailer for the film drops, we will get an updated plot summary as well. Speaking about the trailer of the film, there have been no updates on that front as well. Normally, the first trailer of the film should’ve been out by now given its November release date. However, may be due to some issues the footage has been delayed.
But now that the trailer has been delayed, the makers of the film would want to release it on the biggest platform possible. You know what I’m hinting at? I’m saying that we can possibly get Wicked’s trailer at the Super Bowl this year (February 11th, 2024). Just recently we got the news that Deadpool 3’s trailer was dropping at the Super Bowl too. Considering the opulent size and scale of this adaptation, one can’t deny that it requires to be showcased at the biggest stage possible and can you get bigger than the Super Bowl?
At CinemaCon last year, the attendees were showered with loads of updates about upcoming Universal projects like Fast X , The Exorcist: Believer trailer, Kung Fu Panda 4, Oppenheimer, and much more. Among all this, fans were also given a new footage for Wicked which was still pretty much in the early phases of production. As it happens, the footage has finally leaked and you can have a look at it below along with a description. Watch the leaked footage of Wicked below:
The footage was basically a behind-the-scenes sizzle reel of director John M. Chu’s Wicked. The reel gave attendees a sense of the film’s humongous scale, with large immersive practical sets and stages being used in full force and a saturated color palette. In terms of the production design, Wicked footage was said to be accurate to the classic The Wizard of Oz.
The entire cast ensemble was seen in their various incredible costumes and make-up. Throughout most of the reel, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s rendition of “Defying Gravity” could be heard and it sounded as powerful as fans would expect. Also, a major talking point of the footage was the dynamic between Glinda and Elphaba.
John M. Chu spoke highly of the film’s practicality, claiming that the crew planted 9 million real multi-colored tulips in one set that featured the expansive landscape of Oz. Early VFX of the flying monkeys was shown as well. Wicked is by far the biggest project John M. Chu has tackled so far in his career and judging from this sizzle reel, he seems to be up to the task and operating on a whole different level. One thing is for sure, fans of the musical will be happily satisfied at the very least with Universal’s big-screen adaptation.
Wicked is all set to release in theatres on 27th November 2024.
If you have any questions regarding Wicked, feel free to ask in the comments below and stay tuned. As usual, like, subscribe and share our articles as we here are trying to build a community of people High on Cinema!
