Director Jon M. Chu has loved Wicked for a long time. Before the musical became one of the most successful shows on Broadway, Chu saw a performance in San Francisco as a college student.
“I remember thinking, ‘Some director is going to be so lucky to make this into a movie one day’…never thinking that I would actually be able to do it,” Chu shared during a recent visit to The Today Show. Chu went on to explain his vision for how to translate this hit musical to the screen.
“When you’re revisiting this iconic place of Oz and you’re doing it in the movie theater, you gotta go big. We wanted to make the biggest spectacle of cinematic proportions on the scale of Ben-Hur and Cleopatra and a musical all in one,” the director said.
Chu also recalled the birth of his fifth child, which happened this past weekend on the same day as the Los Angeles premiere of the film. “The baby was born while the movie was playing at the premiere!” revealed Chu. Watch the full interview with the Wicked director now!
The Wicked film adaptation stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, Ariana Grande as Glinda, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum as The Wizard, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Ethan Slater as Boq, and Marissa Bode as Nessarose. The first part will be released on November 22, 2024, with Part Two hitting theaters on November 21, 2025.
