Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo Cast as Leads of ‘Wicked’ Adaptation

Jon M. Chu‘s latest project is looking to come into fruition, with an adaptation of the popular Broadway musical Wicked. It’s great to see the project now moving forward after languishing in years of development hell, since 2004!

Universal announced just yesterday that famous pop star Ariana Grande, who will be co-starring in Adam McKay‘s Don’t Look Up next month, and Academy Award Nominated actress Cynthia Erivo will be leading the film. They’ve been cast as Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West, respectively. These roles were played by Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth in the original Broadway show.

Production is slated to begin in 2022 with a tentative 2023 release date, but could we be looking at a potential Oscar contender here? Erivo’s debut in films such as Bad Times at the El Royale, Widows, and Harriet has made her an instant star, with the latter making her an Oscar nominee. With Don’t Look Up Grande may be in a film nominated for Best Picture, so it could be very interesting to see in which direction the film lands with critics and audiences when it comes out in hopefully two years. We won’t have to wait too long now to finally see the film adaptation of this popular Broadway musical realized.

Source: The Playlist