The first part of the adaptation starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo will be released on Nov. 27, 2024APRIL 3, 2023
Ariana Grande DAVID CROTTY/PATRICK MCMULLAN/GETTY IMAGES
JUST AS QUICKLY as she fell into the world of Galinda before she becomes the Good Witch of the South, Ariana Grande is already preparing to say goodbye. Filming for the two-part adaptation of the popular Broadway musical has reached its halfway point – with its first half set for release in November 2024 and its second in December 2025 – and the singer isn’t yet ready to leave Oz.
“Savoring every millisecond left with my Galinda (although she’ll be with me irrevocably, forever). She shows me so many new things every day,” Grande wrote in a lengthy post on Instagram, penning a love letter to the experience of taking on her dream role alongside Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba. She stands beneath a sky-spanning rainbow in the post with her dog Toulouse.
“I am so grateful, I don’t know what to do or say… To be here in Oz where everyday is a life changing one… To be feeling, learning and growing so much at such a disarming speed… To feel so much love around me, to begin each day before the sun is up and to end after it set,” she continued. “To hold my brilliant twin flame / sister Cynthia’s beautiful, green hands every day… To work in the safest, most beautiful and loving, biggest-yet-most-intimate/tiny-feeling spaces…”
She goes on to praise director Jon M. Chu, describing him as “thee most thoughtful, brilliant, compassionate and warmest possible director on this planet, my other Ozian best friend ever. Closing out her list, Grande expressed appreciation for the film’s role in “transforming and healing parts of me that I never knew needed it. Or maybe did.”
The process of creating Wicked has also pulled Grande out of the pop spotlight for the first time in nearly a decade. “Wanted to sing you a little something but don’t want to sing anything that is not “Ozian” at the moment keeping to my little bubble for now,” she wrote on TikTok in January, sharing a video singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” while reminding fans that she’s “on set filming two musical movies all day every day.”
She briefly returned to duet with The Weeknd on a remix of “Die For You,” but Grande can’t be blamed for being a little reluctant to leave her Ozian wonderland. She has named Galinda as her dream role as far back as 2013.
“Forgive me for this most cancerian, rambly post. Words don’t suffice but I suppose I just wanted to (attempt to) share a little,” she concluded. “I don’t want it to end. So while I am still here, present, now, I just wanted to…exclaim my tremendous gratitution! And allow my heart to overflow. I hope this isn’t all a dream because as present as I am attempting to be, it sure does feel like one. Happy halfway to this most beautiful crew. My fellow Ozians. My heart will be stuck here forever.”
