The Wicked musical has been tailored into two particular person motion pictures, with one explicit second from the Broadway present serving because the logical finish to half 1. The massively common prequel story for The Wizard of Oz was first delivered to Broadway again in 2003, and its quick success on the stage meant that an eventual film was inevitable. Of course, there have been important challenges concerned with bringing Wicked to the display screen, and after years of growth hell, two main movement footage are on the best way. This was, finally, the one method to pull such a challenge off.
Universal Pictures has director Jon M. Chu (In The Heights) on the wheel for each Wicked motion pictures, which star Cynthia Ervio as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Ariana Grande as her Wizard of Oz enemy, Galinda the Good. The first film, which hits theaters on November 22, 2024, sees this duo in school collectively as an unlikely friendship varieties. However, they're destined to be at odds with each other, a narrative which Wicked: Part 2 is certain to discover. Of course, Chu needed to discover the right spot to separate Wicked into these two movies—and the musical supplied a primary alternative.
Wicked Part 1 Is Expected To End After Defying Gravity
Defying Gravity Is The Final Scene Of Wicked's First Act
The first Wicked film is predicted to finish after the musical quantity “Defying Gravity,” which serves because the finale of the primary act of the Broadway present. While Act 2 comprises some distinctive scenes, Elphaba's large second is available in “Defying Gravity,” making it the climactic excessive level of the general story. This permits for a pure stopping level for the primary film. What's extra, the next act picks up after a small time bounce, which ought to make the beginning of Wicked: Part 2 an natural continuation of the primary movie.
Wicked's Songwriter Already Explained Why Defying Gravity Has To End Part 1
Stephen Schwartz Explains The Role “Defying Gravity” Had Splitting The Wicked Movies
“Defying Gravity” is a handy place to go away off the Wicked film, however composer Stephen Schwartz, who labored on the unique musical in addition to the movies, has defined that this music is the first cause the present needed to be break up into two movies. While the will to keep up all of the essential moments of the 2-hour-and-45-minute present was a big motivator, Schwartz discovered that persevering with a film after “Defying Gravity” was difficult to tug off. “The song is written specifically to bring a curtain down,” he stated, “and whatever scene to follow it without a break just seemed hugely anti-climactic.”
“Defying Gravity” is certainly one of 20 musical numbers in
Wicked
.
Audiences watching the Wicked musical watch the curtain fall after “Defying Gravity” and have a second because the lights come as much as absolutely course of the magic they only skilled. After the intermission, they're welcomed again to a model new Oz, during which Elphaba and Galinda (now Glinda) have each left their harmless college days and have formally stepped into their roles because the Wicked and Good Witches. Fitting this transition right into a single movie, which would not include that second to interrupt freed from the phantasm, actually would have felt awkward by comparability.
How Wicked Part 1 Splitting The Musical Will Set Up Part 2
Wicked Part 1 Is The Prequel, While Part 2 Happens During The Wizard Of Oz
As beforehand talked about, the 2 acts of Wicked break up Elphaba and Glinda's tales into their college days and grownup years. For this cause, the primary Wicked film can be primarily devoted to those two growing their unlikely friendship, in addition to the event of their magical powers. “Defying Gravity” comes as Elphaba realizes that the Wizard of Oz is a person of smoke and mirrors. She had thought his energy may save Oz, however this large second is when she accepts that she will be able to solely depend on herself, even when doing so means she should develop into the Wicked Witch of the West.
Looking on the story this fashion, it is clear that there was no different possibility than splitting Wicked into two movies.
The second act of Wicked takes place throughout the occasions of The Wizard of Oz however from Elphaba's perspective fairly than that of Dorothy and her companions. In this fashion, the primary Wicked film would be the true Wizard of Oz prequel, which is able to arrange the characters that finally play a job in Dorothy's iconic journey and the downfall of the deeply misunderstood Wicked Witch. Looking on the story this fashion, it is clear that there was no different possibility than splitting Wicked into two movies. It's how the story was made to be informed.