New original songs for the movie adaptation of Wicked were always on the cards, but director Jon M. Chu shared more about the two original songs that’ll feature in the sequel, Wicked: For Good, which comes out on November 21 at Cineworld.
We all collectively lost our minds following the release of the first trailer of Wicked: For Good last week. To coincide with that, Jon M. Chu gave an interview with Vanity Fair, and revealed a number of exciting new details about the film, including that the original songs by Stephen Schwarz are for each of the witches, Elphaba and Glinda. He also shared other tiny insights, including more broom action for Cynthia Erivo and a certain wedding…
Schwarz played the new songs to Erivo and Grande the first night they met
The lore is that when Jon M. Chu brought Stephen Schwarz and both leading ladies into a room together for the first time, the pair sang ‘For Good’ on Chu’s piano. Chu exclusively told Vanity Fair that this was also the moment they heard some of the new originals together.
“The other half of the story that we never tell is that Stephen played their songs for them for the first time there as well. He’s sitting there, and he is like, ‘Would you guys like to hear the songs I’m thinking of for you?’ And they were like, ‘Yes, please.’”
Speaking on the two new original songs, Chu has said, “They’re great additions to this movie. They were necessary in this movie to help tell the story.”
“A lot of movie two was shot before some of the stuff in movie one”
It’s widely known that films aren’t often filmed in chronological order, which can be a feat in itself for actors to flit from one point in time to another, especially if the events that lead them to a certain conclusion are filmed…after the conclusion.
Considering the Broadway musical has been adapted for screen across two movies, this is a pretty intense job for Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariane Grande as Glinda, as Chu reveals they often had to portray their far more conflicted counterparts earlier on in the filming process.
“Casting-wise, we had to have people who could handle both sides of Galinda, both sides of Elphaba. You can do the fun Shiz version of these characters, but can you go to the next level? Can you land the plane? This plane is big, and the world is big.”
Erivo and Grande were more than up to the task.
A wedding has been added to balance all the doom and gloom of Wicked: For Good
“It’s life or death for all of them, so a wedding seemed appropriate,” Chu told Vanity Fair.
While the stage show sees Glinda refer to Fiyero as her fiancé, a wedding never actually plays out in the original Broadway show. However, there very much seems to be a wedding in the Wicked: For Good trailer, and Chu has all but confirmed a wedding is what we’ll see play out on the screen, adding, “It’s harder to forgive certain things in certain scenarios. It makes it more complicated.”
If there’s nothing we live for more, it’s the drama!
We’ll see Elphaba fly a lot more in Wicked: For Good
The joy of film, especially when splitting an adaptation into more a duology like Jon M. Chu has done here, is that we can flesh out more of the story. While many fans will wish for the film to stay as true to the original as possibles, you can’t deny more in-depth material on these complex witches is very appealing – and it sounds like that’s what Chu is going to give us.
In Wicked: For Good we’ll see more of what leads Elphaba down her chosen path and as her ability to control and use her magic grows.
“I think anyone who knows the second act of the show wants a bit more of what Elphaba has been through. It felt right to see what it feels like to lead that life, to ultimately go into ‘No Good Deed’.”
And, it turns out, if you were wow’d by Elphaba’s flying during ‘Defying Gravity’, we’re getting even more of where that came from in the sequel.
There's still a painfully long wait until Wicked: For Good lands in Cineworld cinemas on November 21, but hopefully we'll get lots more details revealed as we get closer to the film's release.
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