‘Wicked’ Good: Meet Ariana Grande’s Glinda and Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba

Welcome to Oz! Like a house falling out of the sky, the first official photos from the two-part, highly anticipated Wicked films have dropped into our lives, courtesy of stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. 

Based on the musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman, the Wicked films are being helmed by Crazy Rich Asians director John M. Chu. Wicked tells the story of the frenemy-ship between Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, featuring beloved songs like “Popular,” “The Wizard and I” and “Defying Gravity.” It’s now officially the fourth-longest running Broadway show of all time, surpassing Andrew Lloyd Weber‘s Cats this month. A Wicked feature film has been in the works for almost 20 years—shortly since the musical premiered on Broadway on June 10th, 2003 and made household names of its stars Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. 

And now, we finally have our first glimpse at our central witches. The photo of Erivo as Elphaba is shot from the back, almost completely obscuring her telltale green skin. We do however, see her sporting signature witch’s hat, looking as sharp as ever, as well as her signature broom.

In the photo of Grande as Glinda, we see her ascending a staircase from a distance, as regal as ever. Of course, she’s wearing her favorite color—pink—and we can see the side of her face in profile. Grande is also sporting her newly blonde tresses. 

Grande and Erivo are joined in the films by Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, Ethan Bailey as Boq, and Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible. 

The first Wicked film will fly into theaters on November 27, 2024, with the second entering by bubble on December 25th, 2025. Until then, feast your eyes on these first look photos—which, as Glinda would say, are positively “splendiferous.”