As the combined SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes drag on, an increasing number of productions are being impacted, including the big-budget musical adaptation of “Wicked” starring Cynthia Ervivo and Adriana Grande.
Now, director Jon M. Chu has taken to Twitter to give an update on the movie’s progress – and how much longer they’ve got to go.
“Not done yet. Just paused until the strike is over and we can finish the last pieces of the movie. We were only a few days away from being done so we were SO close. It’s been very painful to put a halt to it all but we will be back! And we will finish properly strong when the time is right,” Chu wrote. “My heart goes out to our cast and crew who were cut short of what we came here to complete together. More to come but in the meantime I’m excited to excavate what we have shot for the past year here in Oz (release date shouldn’t be affected). It has been an extraordinary adventure… more to do.”
Chu references the release date for the movie, but “Wicked” is actually split in half – the first half is due Nov. 27, 2024, with the second half (“Wicked: Part Two”) scheduled for Nov. 26, 2025.
The movie is an adaptation of the stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman (who returned for the film version), which was based on the novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire. It looked to humanize and give background to the Wicked Witch of the West, immortalized in “The Wizard of Oz.”
The new version of the beloved musical also stars Jeff Goldblum (as the Wizard of Oz), Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang and Ethan Slater.
