Wicked Director on two films making ‘Defying Gravity’ longer and longer

Jon M. Chu considered himself a fan of “Wicked” long before he was hired to direct the big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical.

So it was a matter of where, not if, he would pay tribute to Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, who originated the stage roles of Elphaba and Glinda, in the two-part film, the first of which hits theaters on November 22. After much deliberation among the powers that be in Oz, it was decided that they would appear in the film as the stars of Wizomania, an extended show within the show that takes place when Elphaba. (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande) visit the Emerald City during the song “One Short Day.”

“I told them, ‘I want you to experience for the first time what you gave us.’ I saw Idina and Kristin when they were doing the workshop at the show at the Curran Theater (in 2003). I’ll never forget being blown away by their performance,” Chu recalls, relaxing on a couch at Manhattan’s Bowery Hotel in a matching green sweater. “Once they were on set, I think reality hit them and it was very full circle for them.”

“Wicked,” which introduced classics like “Defying Gravity,” “Popular” and “For Good” to the Broadway pantheon, chronicles everything that happens before Dorothy lands in Oz and strolls down the iconic Yellow Brick Road. Set before, during and after “The Wizard of Oz,” the story charts the unlikely friendship between the green-skinned Elphaba (later known as the Wicked Witch of the West) and the cheerful, pink-loving Glinda (eventually dubbed Glinda the God). “Part One” chronicles their time together at Shiz University, where they are forced to be roommates and eventually become besties. The second film, which premieres on November 21, 2025, starts after Elphaba has full control of her powers and has been declared an enemy of the state by the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh).

As “Wicked: Part One” opens on the big screen, Chu indulged Black in a spoiler-filled chat about Menzel and Chenoweth’s cameos, sacred lines that were (and weren’t) cut from the script… and whether we’ll see more of Dorothy in “Part 2.”

“Wicked” was originally developed as one film. What were the earlier versions like?

When I walked in, everyone was already in high-octane mode debating: Should we make this into two movies? Other scripts that tried to fit it into one film were removing many songs and changing the story in ways that didn’t quite make logical, emotional sense. You can get away with that on stage, but film audiences are tougher. As we picked each script apart, I asked some questions that opened up a lot of discussion. It became inevitable that we would have to commit to two films.

I imagine it didn’t take much convincing to get Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel in the movie. But how did you find the right time to include them?

They should not just come to do no matter what. Our inner circle thought of all sorts of things to present to them. Is Kristin playing Glinda’s mother? Are they one of those who say “The wizard wants to see you now”? It always felt overwhelming. We had to give them something big. We had this section in “Wizomania” that needed backstories that we didn’t need in the show: What is Grimmerie? And an understanding of how the Wizard came to Oz. I thought, ‘What if we do this episode as a play? It was supposed to be a theme park ride like “It’s a Small World”, which was a fun concept. But if it’s a show, then it’s kind of meta. Idina and Kristin play the two most famous actors in Oz. They become glamorous and people come to applaud them. Stephen Schwartz immediately knew what to do and added Idina’s Elphaba war cry and interplay of shoving each other out of the way. It’s fun to play off the familiarity of two megastars on the show.

Some quoted lines and lyrics, such as “we’re late for Wizomania,” were cut. Were these difficult decisions given how closely fans know the show?

When you don’t have a live audience to play off of, some of the comedy doesn’t quite work. I remember when Ari read that we didn’t have the line “The wizard wants to see you now!” There was a reason for that; they were more advanced in geography. In rehearsals, we didn’t have it, and every time that moment would happen, they sang it anyway. Ari said, “I promise you, we have to have it.” So I thought, “OK, let me figure it out. We built it in so there are two entrances now, but it was worth it.” There were debates all the time. At the beginning, when Glinda says “It’s good to see me, isn’t it?”, she says in the show, “No need to answer. It’s rhetorical.” But in the movie, when she said the line, the joke didn’t land. Not because of the way she executed it. But because there is no audience to give feedback for it. We set fake Ozian reactions, but it was too meta, too early. It was scary to cut because it’s like a line from the Bible.

Why did you include a “Wizard of Oz” tribute with Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion walking down the yellow brick road?

“The Wizard of Oz” is potentially a dream. It’s a world where there are no real stakes. Knowing that Elphaba and Glinda live in a world of real stakes, we had to recreate with the audience that this was real. So we all dropped into the crime scene, perhaps the most famous crime scene ever in film and literature, with the iconic hat in the puddle. We see the full landscape of Oz. It’s this living, breathing place with real cultures, so we immediately establish that this is not a dream world. Seeing the four characters also triggers something in your mind; you associate these characters with this place. And we will revisit these characters in film two.

Will Dorothy be a character in “Part 2”?

Dorothy is in the show. They have to cross each other, and you can only tease it so much. I won’t say if she’s necessarily a character in movie two. There’s a part of me that wants everyone’s Dorothy to be the Dorothy they want. And yet there is interaction and some crossover. So I’ll leave it to “Part 2.”

Is it true that MGM owns the copyright to the Yellow Brick Road and the ruby ​​shoes? Did you need permission to link to them?

We had limits on what we could refer to or not. We never use ruby ​​slippers. Nessa has crystal slippers as in the Frank L. Baum book, the Gregory Maguire book and the show. I don’t think the phrase “yellow brick road” is textualized, but the shape of the road definitely is. We couldn’t handle the spiral. We had to make a circle that continues to show that this is not where the road ends.

How did you decide where to add new characters and expand the plot?

We moved backwards from “Defying Gravity.” What is Elphaba’s superpower? Her superpower is her relationship with nature and gravity. OK, so you need to know more about her upbringing. We added a scene where she is young. Is it because she is green or she has this power that everyone is afraid of her? It’s a little muddy in the show. It must be because of her power and her green. So then we had to show the power. So when she is born, everything flies up. She expresses her frustrations and anxiety through this relationship with gravity. When she’s a kid and she’s being bullied, she doesn’t know how to control it yet.

We also see Glinda say “I know it was you down there” to Elphaba (about her powers) even though everyone believed Madame Morrible. It shows that Glinda is actually smart and aware. She’s not this silly character. These things were important for building characters. You also have to show the passage of time, which is hard to do in the show and took space to do.

When the first look images of the film were released, people on social media were vocal about the images being dark.

Yes. Tell them to turn up their brightness on their phone!

I was curious about your reaction knowing that the film is bright and colorful and doesn’t necessarily reflect these images.

I chose those pictures specifically. It was so early and we had just started shooting. I wanted images that were evocative and provocative to show that it’s not a bright, poppy story. We didn’t even have the effects done. The background was blue. I had to have the VFX set in the sky. I was coloring it on my iPhone. We don’t do it through a real process. I love playing in the shadows, but I had my iPhone brightness very high. When I released the photos, literally from my iPhone, I realized, “Oh, everyone really doesn’t turn up their brightness that high.” I felt bad for doing it. There was no passage through the studio.

How did you decide how to stage and slow parts of “Defying Gravity”?

The nightmare of my life has been thinking about “Defying Gravity”. In the show it’s very fast. She walks (away from) Wizard and goes into “I hope you’re happy.” It goes so fast that it doesn’t feel like the end of the movie, and it doesn’t feel deserved. Her entire journey leads to this. Doing it live was helpful. I didn’t know how long it would be before they appeared on those lines. We can’t add more words to “Defying Gravity.” So what if she’s not ready to fly and she falls? It changed things for us.

It was very scary. The whole time I was like, “OK, we’re going to test this and see how offended people are by this.” We definitely tucked it in so as not to spread it out so very. My own brain was like, “I just want to secure the fast version isn’t it actually working now.” We also made these versions and we say, “No, we actually need all of this. This is much bigger than just a song. This is about the end of a movie and the journey of a character that we’ve invested so much in.”

(Producer) Marc Platt said, “Wow, you really break the song up….” We had those moments. We kicked the tires all the time. There was not one stone left unturned, not one thing that we didn’t question because we knew how important this was. That’s why it kept me awake at night.

Is there a song you felt benefited from going from stage to screen?

“Something Bad” is hard to do on stage. It’s in the classroom, and Dr. Dillamond has nothing to do. So this idea that they had a secret meeting with all these animals, and that the animals weren’t upright, creepy human animals, but actually animals, helps us empathize with them more. There is a society that is affected by this and they have kept a secret record of all these incidents that happen. There is a darker underbelly to Oz.

Marketing for “Wicked” has been next level. How will you maintain momentum for “Part 2” in November 2025?

I don’t know, but “Part 2”, I’d say because I cut “Part 2” together, is stupid. You get the meat. I didn’t know the context of where we would be in society right now. It becomes eight times more relevant than before when you talk about truth and consequences of making the right or wrong choices. It’s intense.