the wicked cast

the casting logic

erivo was cast first and it was not a surprise to anybody — elphaba is the part every casting conversation about her had been circling for years. grande's route was less obvious: she self-taped, at a point when the industry read on her was pop star who acts occasionally.

the supporting bench is where the film's actual seriousness shows. bailey has an olivier. slater was tony-nominated. yeoh had just won an academy award. this is not a musical cast assembled from film stars who can approximately sing — it is largely a stage cast with film stars added at the top.

jonathan bailey's fiyero

the piece on him goes further, but the short version: fiyero is a thankless part on stage — the romantic obstacle between two much better-written women — and the film gives him considerably more to do. he and grande were subsequently announced for a west end production together, which she later withdrew from.

ethan slater's boq

the singing

recorded live on set rather than mimed to studio pre-records, which chu has confirmed and which erivo and grande both pushed for. that decision is why defying gravity won a grammy in a category full of contemporary pop singles, and it is the single most consequential production choice in either film.

it also constrains the casting in a way a pre-recorded musical does not. an actor who can be fixed in a booth over three weeks is a different hire from one who has to deliver the take on the day, on a set, while acting. that is most of why the supporting bench reads like a theatre programme.

who else is in them

• marissa bode as nessarose, elphaba's sister — the first wheelchair user to play the part in any major production of wicked, and cast because she is one.
• peter dinklage as doctor dillamond, the goat professor, in voice.
• bowen yang and bronwyn james as pfannee and shenshen, glinda's hangers-on, who do a great deal of the first film's comic work alongside her.
• idina menzel and kristin chenoweth, the original broadway elphaba and glinda, in cameo roles — which is the films acknowledging where they come from rather than a stunt.

the director

jon m. chu, who made crazy rich asians and in the heights, directed both. he is also directing oh, the places you'll go, the animated dr. seuss musical grande leads for warner bros. in 2028 — which makes him the only director she has worked with more than once.