WICKED Film will be split into two movies, releasing Dec 2024 & Dec 2025 — Page 4

Playbill_Trash said: "I hope the producers of this movie and Ariana Grande are reading the reviews of Beanie Feldstein in Funny Girl - and taking the hint.

Hopefully they’re self-aware enough to admit when a poor casting choice is not fit for a high-profile role and will avoid the scrutiny, regret, and missed opportunities before it’s too late.

Stay in your lane, let someone who can do it do it."

Comparing Ariana and Beanie is ridiculous. Ariana is 1) a singer 2) a soprano. No idea how she'll do from an acting perspective, but she'll do fine with the score. Beanie cannot handle the score she is singing.

Ke3 said: "Playbill_Trash said: "I hope the producers of this movie and Ariana Grande are reading the reviews of Beanie Feldstein in Funny Girl - and taking the hint.

Hopefully they’re self-aware enough to admit when a poor casting choice is not fit for a high-profile role and will avoid the scrutiny, regret, and missed opportunities before it’s too late.

Stay in your lane, let someone who can do it do it."

Comparing Ariana and Beanie is ridiculous. Ariana is 1) a singer 2) a soprano. No idea how she'll do from an acting perspective, but she'll do fine with the score. Beanie cannot handle the score she is singing."

Agreed. I've no doubt Ariana has the chops to do the role justice. I just hope they lean into the soprano / operatic quality of her voice instead of letting her do her usual pop stuff. She's such a lover of music and theater that I think she will do the part justice.

I've been massively turned off since they announced the cast, but this does make it interesting again. I hope it works out

Playbill_Trash said: "Dolly80 said: "Let’s hope we can work out what Ariana is actually singing for once "

Exactly, thank you. Diction is just as important as vocal range in a MUSICAL where LYRICS are there to move the STORY along. Not just pop vocal pyrotechnics for the sake of being there.

Her strengths are different than Beanie’s, I’ll give you that. However they are both (un)qualified for the behemoth roles they’ve been cast in. Both are biting off more than they can chew, and producers in both cases are not setting anyone up for success."

I disagree. Ariana has the vocals and the diction. Don't let her pop persona fool you. She was on Broadway in 13. Hopefully she, and the director, know that this character isn't her pop persona. But we shall see.

Beanie just doesn't have IT or the voice, so that's that. That was is just an expensive vanity project.

Playbill_Trash said: "Dolly80 said: "Let’s hope we can work out what Ariana is actually singing for once "

Exactly, thank you. Diction is just as important as vocal range in a MUSICAL where LYRICS are there to move the STORY along. Not just pop vocal pyrotechnics for the sake of being there.

Her strengths are different than Beanie’s, I’ll give you that. However they are both (un)qualified for the behemoth roles they’ve been cast in. Both are biting off more than they can chew, and producers in both cases are not setting anyone up for success."

I'll be upfront and say I'm a big fan of her music, which I'm sure will make some dismiss what I'm going to say. Her diction was already improving with each album, but within the past year and a half it's become a non-issue for me. Her live performances for her latest album would've been recorded around the same time she was auditioning for Wicked. She's easy to understand in them, and it's clear she has been working with someone in preparation for the role. Then again, I've never felt Patti LuPone was that hard to understand either so maybe my ears are just good at translating mush.

I'm not saying she'll be Cheno, but I don't think the score will be an issue. As a fan, I'm more concerned about her first serious acting role in years being something this big. I guess we'll see.

My issue with Grande is less diction (still an issue, but maybe it'll indeed be better) and more it doesn't feel like she can properly act through a musical number. I feel like every time I've seen her tackle a Broadway song its her usual pop performance with effortless high notes that show no passion or character.

I imagine what they've done is tried to expand Grande's role to capitalise on her star power, realised there is no way to expand it without making the movie feel conflated so decided to split the movie into two and have each movie focus on each witch.

Part One will be mainly Elphaba's story. Part Two will be mainly Glinda's story.

Plannietink08 said: "I imagine what they've done is tried to expand Grande's role to capitalise on her star power, realised there is no way to expand it without making the movie feel conflated so decided to split the movie into two and have each movie focus on each witch.

Part One will be mainly Elphaba's story. Part Two will be mainly Glinda's story."

Ugh I hate it.

I think having a larger canvas will give the story more of a chance to get deepened.

Assuming that the stage version's Act 1 would roughly equate to the first film and vice-versa... might there end up being a big tonal shift between the two films, for better or worse? The first film would seemingly convey the Act 1 message of "Yeah, defy the establishment! Elphaba is gonna change the world!", while the second film would end with the Act 2 message "Actually, Elphaba's approach utterly failed, and it's only those accepted by the establishment and working within it who can truly change things."* The likely gap between the two film's release dates might make that tonal shift land differently on film than it does onstage. Would some film audience members who didn't know the stage show, be disappointed by an 'overly cynical' sequel which 'ruined' the more hopeful first film? If that tonal shift were done purposefully and intelligently via two films, I might be interested. But, like most here, I doubt that this decision was artistically motivated.

(*Honestly I haven't seen Wicked in forever, so I might be oversimplifying here.)

Owen22 said: "Actually the story in the novel is quite sweeping."

That's true, and my first thoughts were about how they must be adding more material from "the source material" mentioned in Chu's update. But, what source material is he referring to, the book, or the musical?

If Chu is adding more material from the book, that also means adding characters and plot elements that are new to fans of the musical. Elements that were edited out of the musical in order to keep the focus on Galinda and Elphaba only (and as mentioned, they ARE sweeping). The score for the musical reflects that decision to keep a tighter focus.

I don't see how an expansion for the movie version might work.

As for me, I have no intension of seeing the movie until it's available to view in its entirety. I was OK with waiting for sequels during the original STAR WARS era, but certainly not for a musical (Wicked is certainly not on par with generating the excitement of the original STAR WARS films). I've become very adept at patiently waiting for movie releases because of the COVID pandemic.

I can certainly wait until the whole movie is streamable at one time. ...or skip it altogether (we'll see how things roll in 2026).