‘Wicked’ To Be Made Into a Feature Film; Release Date, News and Cast

Jun 17, 2016 09:46 PM EDT

Most people know the Broadway musical Wicked about as well as they know its source material from The Wizard of OzWicked is the story of the Wicked Witch of the West from her point of view, and it is the tenth longest-running Broadway show since its 2003 debut with over 5,000 performances and several tours.  It was really just a matter of time before this Wicked musical was made into a feature film, and this is what is known about its adaptation to a feature film with its release date, news, and cast. 

According to Rolling Stone, Stephen Daldry is attached to direct the film, and he has had a lot of experience in a variety of films such as Billy Elliot, The Hours, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  He directed the musical version of Billy Elliot, and although many of his projects border on the dramatic, he is a good choice for this musical version about Elphaba, the real name of the Wicked Witch of the West.

There is no doubt that this film will be a hit, but audiences won't be able to see it until 2019.  So far, there is no word about the cast.  The original cast featured Frozen's own Idina Menzel as Elphaba, as well as Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda. 

For those that don't know, Wicked is actually based on a Gregory Maguire 1995 novel known as Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.  I'm not certain if it started a trend in literature to tell a story from the villain's perspective, giving the reader a sense of sympathy for the figure of evil. 

The original show for Wicked has won three Tony Awards and six Drama Desk Awards, and even a Grammy Award for the cast album.  The musical is practically part of our culture already, and the as the songs were sung several times on the show Glee, creating even more popularity for it.  It's kind of what like Hamilton is now. 

This is a guess, but it probably won't be Disney putting this Wicked film out, even though Disney has played with the Wicked Witch of the West twice.  The first time was with Oz: The Great and Powerful, and they were given limited license to the character, and it was told that the character's skin tone couldn't be a certain shade of green.  The second time was on their mixed fairy tale show Once Upon A Time on ABC, and she was called Zelena.  Apparently, Disney wants the full rights to Oz like they wanted Star Wars and Marvel, but it doesn't look like they will get it.