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The reason why the movie Wicked is divided into two parts

Umito
The reason why the movie Wicked is divided into two parts

All thanks to Cynthia Erivo

Wicked truly made all of our hearts defy gravity this week, with stunning performances from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Clocking in at two hours and 41 minutes, the film is packed with a million musical numbers, outfit kills, and character arcs. However, this is still only the first part of the iconic musical adaptation. So why was Wicked split into two parts? The answer actually consists of two parts. There are two iconic reasons why Wicked just couldn’t be a one-off movie, and the second has everything to do with Cynthia Erivo.

Wicked director Jon Chu revealed the main reason why Wicked needed to be a two-parter on Twitter in 2022.

He explained the entire premise behind this decision: “Here’s what happened: As we prepared for this production over the last year, it became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to bring together the story of Wicked in a single film without causing any real damage to it. . As we tried to cut songs or cut characters, these decisions started to feel like fatal compromises to the source material that had entertained us all for so many years.

He added: “So we decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one Wicked movie but TWO!!!! With more space, we can tell the story of Wicked as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys of these beloved characters.

The second reason Wicked had to be split into two parts comes from composer Stephen Schwartz, who explain that Defying Gravity simply couldn’t be topped. I completely understand this one.

“We found it very difficult to get past Defying Gravity without interruption,” he said. “This song is written specifically to bring down the curtain, and whatever scene followed it uninterruptedly felt extremely underwhelming. So for those two reasons, plus the excitement of doing something that’s never been done before with a musical, we decided to make two films. So what you’re basically saying is that Cynthia Erivo was killed so hard that she couldn’t be topped by anything else. I understand.

Hold on to your witching hats, because Wicked part two is coming out on November 21, 2025. I waited longer for Bridgerton season three to be honest, so I can’t complain here.