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It’s going to be a big year for Ariana Grande. Her new single “yes, and?” already debuted at #1, and her new album Eternal Sunshine is out next month. This fall, Grande will play her first big cinematic role. Grande got her start acting on kids’ TV, and she’s had minor roles here and there — voice roles in animated films Snowflake, The White Gorilla and Underdogs, cameos in Zoolander 2 and Don’t Look Up. But this fall, she and Cynthia Erivo will play the lead roles in the long-awaited Wicked movie.
Wicked, a musical spin on The Wizard Of Oz, opened on Broadway more than 20 years ago, and a movie adaptation has been in the works for a long time. Grande, who has never worked too hard to disguise her theater-kid inclinations, has been a fan for a long time, and she and Erivo were announced as the Wicked leads in 2021.
This is one of those two-part movie deals, with the first Wicked arriving this Thanksgiving and the second following a year later. The director is Jon M. Chu, who most recently made In The Heights and Crazy Rich Asians and who will always have place in my heart for making the second and third Step Up movies. The cast also includes Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Bowen Yang, and Ariana Grande’s current boyfriend Ethan Slater.
Last night, the first-look trailer for Wicked aired during the Super Bowl. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were both at the game, sitting together, and they were two of the many celebrities who got a tiny bit of camera time. The movie looks very colorful and very CGI-heavy, and I have no idea whether it’ll be any good. Check out the trailer below.
Wicked is in theaters 11/27, and Wicked Part Two is out 11/26/2025.