"Wicked" Gets New Trailer

Universal Pictures has released a new trailer for American singer-actress Ariana Grande and English superstar Cynthia Erivo's upcoming movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical “Wicked”.

In the second trailer, the pop star steps into her role as Glinda while recounting the untold tale of her green-skinned former frenemy to the citizens of Oz, then cuts to previously unseen clips of Glinda and Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba meeting at Shiz University, becoming pals and traveling to the Emerald City together. 

The footage also features new snippets of the duo belting out “Defying Gravity” together. “There’s no fight we cannot win, just you and I defying gravity,” they sing in unison.

"Wicked" is centered around the witches from the land of Oz and the unlikely friendship that is formed between The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.

The musical is based on the 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire, which itself is a retelling of the 1900 L. Frank Baum’s classic “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, is told from the perspective of the witches.

The adaptation is a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz” and recounts everything that happened before Dorothy sauntered down that iconic yellow brick road — and tells the story of the unlikely friendship between Elphaba, who later becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda, known as the Good Witch.

Americana Screenwriter Winnie Holsman and composer Steven Schwartz are adapting the new musical movie, with Jon M. Chu helming.

The cast also features Grande as Glinda the Good Witch, Erivo as Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, and Ethan Slater as Boq.

“Wicked” marks Grande and Erivo's comeback to Broadway. The “7 Rings” pop star got her start in the 2008 Broadway musical 13 as a teenager before breaking out on Nickelodeon’s “Victorious”. Erivo won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Celie in “The Color Purple”.

Grande’s love for the production has been well-documented over the years, including her explosive performance of “The Wizard and I” on NBC’s “A Very Wicked Halloween” in 2018.

The new preview comes with just a couple of months left until the first of the two Jon M. Chu-directed Wicked films arrives in theaters on November 22. The second installment is set to release on December 25, 2025.

To build hype ahead of the premiere, the Wicked team has also been rolling out collaborations with brands such as Mattel — which saw Grande and Erivo getting their own Barbie dolls — and partnered with NBC Olympics to bring the Emerald City train to life in a promo for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

"Wicked" has also shared multiple behind-the-scenes looks at the creation of the films, which are based on the Broadway musical and Gregory Maguire's novel of the same name. 

In one, the “Yes, And?” musician and Erivo explained how their friendship offscreen translated to their portrayals onscreen.“These two very different women just fall completely in love with each other, and that is mirrored experience of what happened with Cynthia and I,” Grande said.