Universal ended its CinemaCon presentation with Wicked last year and they continued to beat the drum for the Jon M. Chu feature take of the Broadway musical this year with a faux tulip spectacle. Every attendee at Caesar’s Colosseum were given a faux tulip at their seat which lit up in varying colors, in particular pink and green, creating a great visual before Jeff Goldblum aka the Wizard took the stage to introduce Chu and producer Marc Platt.
But the big surprise came when the witches themselves Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo took the stage.
Grande knew after seeing the live musical, she had to play Glinda.
The new footage shows how Erivo’s Elphaba and Grande’s Glinda are forced to be roomates at witch school. Glinda is something of a queen bee, and gives Elphaba her black witch hat. Elphaba is invited to meet the wizard and Glinda is in tow. “You have no real power,” Elphaba tells Goldblum’s wizard. “That’s why I need you,” he answers. Elphaba is given the broom, and Michelle Yeoh’s head school mistress promptly declares her an enemy. Elphaba is chased and escapes, flying on her broom out a window. “I’m not afraid, it’s the wizard who should be afraid!”
Wicked, the first chapter of a two-part immersive, cultural celebration, releases domestically on November 27 this year with Wicked Part Two scheduled to arrive in theaters on November 26, 2025.
The big-screen adaptation of the stage musical tells the untold story of the Witches of Oz, based on the bestselling novel by Gregory Maguire, originally based on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, previously adapted into MGM’s classic 1939 film of the same name.
Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, which examines how the green-skinned Elphaba (Erivo) became the Wicked Witch of the West, as well as the sorceress Glinda’s (Grande) trajectory to becoming known as the Good Witch.
The big-screen adaptation was written by Winne Holzman, who penned the long-running stage production, and Oscar-winning composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz. Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldbum, Jonathan Bailey, and Ethan Slater also star.
Marc Platt produces through his Universal-based Marc Platt Productions, alongside David Stone.