Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo share emotional posts, tease character photos as filming wraps

The cast and director of the forthcoming Wicked musical movies want everyone to know that the films have left a big handprint on their hearts.

Production on Jon M. Chu’s two-part adaptation of the beloved Broadway hit has officially wrapped, and its stars are celebrating with a series of photos and emotional messages about their experiences shooting it. 

Ariana Grande, who is set to star as Galinda Upland (a.k.a. Glinda the Good Witch), offered a shadowy sneak peek at her costume and, in a now-expired Instagram Story, expressed her gratitude to the cast and crew who helped the movies get made.

“Every single person that worked on these films was not only the absolute best at what they do, but made every single day for over a year feel so incredibly safe, kind, and thoughtful, and inspired every day as if it were always the first,” she wrote. “How something so much bigger than all of us could feel so intimate and small and warm is beyond me, but it starts from the top.”

The “Yes, and?” singer also shouted out the film's director, adding, “You made it so.”

Cynthia Erivo, who will star opposite Grande as future Wicked Witch Elphaba, also shared a shadowy image of a certain sorceress defying gravity on a broomstick.

“The universe will take things away to make space for the grand gifts it has waiting for us,” Erivo wrote. “THIS moment, this film, these people, this cast, this crew, this director, my Glinda were the Grandest gift I could ever have asked for, and I am eternally grateful for the chance to bring you This Elphie. I hope when you meet her, you’ll love her as much and as fiercely as I do.”

Their costar Jonathan Bailey kept it short, captioning a photo of a shadow of him in costume with a simple message, “Danced on through.” The Fellow Travelers actor portrays Fiyero, a prince who catches the attention of both Glinda and Elphaba in a consequential love triangle.

Director Chu also bid the production farewell in his own emotional post.

“Thank you to the massive crew and cast and @universalpictures pictures for supporting the most ambitious cinematic production I have ever been a part of or, frankly, ever witnessed,” he wrote. “We built real Munchkinland! A multi-level Shiz University Campus! I walked and shopped in a real Emerald City and met the actual Wizard head that moved in real time.”

Praising the cast, he added, “Most of the year my jaw has been on the floor and heart in the clouds. Cameras began rolling here in London in November of 2022, and now in January 2024 our principal photography is officially wrapped. Whew. Exhale.”

Chu closed his post much like Dorothy as she ends her travels in The Wizard of Oz, the tale that started it all. “Closing my eyes. And… click… click… click.”

Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, telling the "true story" of the Wicked Witch of the West long before Dorothy landed in Oz. In it, she and Glinda go on a journey from mutually resentful roommates to unlikely friends to political enemies, starting with their school days at Shiz University. The film also features Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, Ethan Slater as Boq, Bowen Yang as Pfannee, and Marissa Bode as Nessarose.

Filming began in April 2023 and was only a few days away from wrapping when the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike forced its cast and crew members to hit pause.

Chu assured fans that the release date “shouldn't be affected,” and so far that holds true, with the firsts part of Wicked still slated to hit theaters on Nov. 27, 2024, and part 2 casting its spell a year later, on Nov. 26, 2025.

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• Jonathan Bailey says Wicked films will defy gravity and belief: 'Going to blow people's minds'
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• Wicked movies director shares first-look photos of Glinda and Elphaba