Warning: This story contains spoilers for “Wicked: For Good.”
Jon M. Chu confessed he intentionally never showed Universal Pictures executives the final shot of “Wicked: For Good.”
The director shared this revelation in an interview with Business Insider, noting studio executives had been wanting to use the Broadway show’s iconic poster as part of the promotion plan for the musical movie. However, Chu said he nixed this early on, since he knew he wanted the final scene to emulate the poster — a fact he wanted to keep under wraps.
“Do you know how hard it was to force Universal to never use it in any marketing material?” Chu recalled. “They even had a poster of it for the first movie, and I was like, ‘Why are we releasing this poster? We should never acknowledge the whisper. Never. Never.’ I wanted it to feel like we didn’t care about it, then suddenly it’s the last shot in ‘For Good.’”
He continued: “So the studio never saw that final shot. I imposed a huge thing: ‘Do not show this shot!’ They wanted it so badly.”
Chu credited the Broadway poster as being “one of the most brilliant posters ever made,” which is why he wanted to do the moment justice.
“You don’t know what Glinda’s saying, because they never actually do that in the musical,” he added of the onscreen moment where Ariana Grande’s Glinda whispers into the ear of Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba. “But it’s sort of the key to friendship. That we have these secrets. And the girls got to choose what they are actually saying in the scene. I don’t even know what they said.”
Chu’s behind-the-scenes tidbit comes after part two of “Wicked” hit theaters this past weekend, where it brought in a whopping $226 million globally at the box office. The first “Wicked” movie earned a notable $112.5 million domestic and $164 million worldwide in its opening weekend last year. And so, “For Good” is now the box office record holder for Broadway adaptations.
However, the followup film isn’t necessarily as popular with critics, as many have found the second half underwhelming.
“Wicked: For Good” is playing now in theaters.
