The new Wicked movie, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, debuted in movie theaters on November 22, 2024. Many Broadway fans were ecstatic to see the Broadway musical be made into a movie, filling theaters when it was released.

“Elphaba’s story is about how a colorful, powerful, magical woman — despite being disparaged, demonized, and discriminated against — becomes a hero. Wicked is a reclamation and a reimagining of all the labels that are used against her. It is the proclamation of her right to exist in all her power,” she continued. “If that sounds familiar to you colorful, magical people in this room — it should.” said Cyntha Erivo, actress of Elphaba.

The Wicked musical is a prequel to the Wizard of Oz, telling the story of the Wicked Witch of the West and how she became evil. The Wicked movie adaptation was announced in 2016, with the intention of being released in 2019. However, because of COVID 19 ,the release date was pushed back to November 2024. Filming for Wicked started in December 2022, and wrapped up in January 2024. The filming of the movie was disrupted by the now resolved Hollywood strikes in July of 2023, which is why the filming process took longer than usual.

¨As someone who is a huge fan of the play and has seen it many times, I was so excited to watch it because I have seen the play multiple times. It being named the Best Film of 2024 is valid, because the effects and the design of the film, all the colors, it was all really on point. My favorite part of the movie is how they handled all the special effects, because they can only do so much in the play as far as rigging it, but in the film it was so much more magical and realistic.¨ said Mrs. Wilson, teacher at Manchester High School.