Haters Will Tell You Wicked Sucks. Here’s Why They’re Wrong.
It’s a certified Broadway smash that’s stepped up to the big screen, but not everyone’s on board. If you bump into a hater, here’s a cheat sheet on everything Wicked got right.
Share
Want a great deal to catch Wicked in cinemas?
For nearly 18 months, cinemas and studios alike have been desperate to find the next Barbie. A candy-coated (but meaningful) juggernaut; a four-quadrant monster that could please kids, tweens, grown-ups and fans of the original IP, all at the same time. It’s no easy feat to brew up this magic mix and nail it – just look at Borderlands 😬 (editor’s note: just don’t).
From minute one, Wicked was pinned as the next big hope. It ticked all those boxes, plus it even had a “boys’ movie” twin: Gladiator II was opening right beside it. The theory being? Just like 2023’s “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, the two diametrically-opposed films would supercharge ticket sales for each other. Magic wands versus muscles & bronze.
We already know the musical was a sensation. If you haven’t at least heard of Wicked, which bubble have you been living in?! The original production won three Tonys and became the second-highest grossing Broadway musical of all time. The million (nay, billion!) dollar question is: can a movie COPY-PASTE all that stage success onto the silver screen?
Well friends, so far, so good. On its opening weekend alone, Wicked racked up $164M worldwide – the biggest opening in cinema history for a musical adaptation. As we type this, the film has an 8.2/10 on IMDb (matching stone-cold classics like Citizen Kane, Toy Story and Return of the Jedi) and a 90% Critics’ Rating, where laurels like “spellbinding” and “irresistible” are being tossed around like confetti.
Diehard Wicked: The Musical fans are joy-weeping that Director Jon Chu (In the Heights) “got it right”, and that the songs, costumes, and performances from Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba) & Ariana Grande (Glinda) are stupendously good. But let’s peer beneath the pink frills and emerald dazzle to find out if there’s real depth here. Starting with one big question: like a monkey without wings, does Wicked’s core premise even fly in 2024?
What’s at the heart of Wicked’s message?
Before it hit Broadway, Wicked started life as a 1995 novel; a “revisionist exploration” written by American author Gregory Maguire that was framed as a faux-biography of the Wicked Witch of the West. So it’s natural to assume that, when your source material came out the same year as Clueless, your take on social currency in the modern era might be a bit dusty.
With her drastically different look, Elphaba’s classmates gasp and snigger, but isn’t that a bit… retro? The idea that a student would be so resoundingly ostracised for her skin colour? It’s not the 90s anymore. Now, we’re encouraged to “claim our weirdness”. International models with skin differences like Canadian Winnie Harlow are celebrated, not shunned. Let’s be honest, there’s TikTokers out there who’d do anything for some green skin to bump up their followers.
It helps to look past the greenness of it all and focus on the wound that Wicked is really trying to pick at in all of us: acceptance and belonging. Elphaba’s green skin is a fluid, plug ‘n’ play metaphor for any minority difference you care to name: racial, sexual, physical, mental. Her “otherness” can apply to a myriad of people who see her exclusion and think, “That’s me.”
Even if you fall into none of those categories, Wicked still connects, because we ALL have an in-built desire to be “in” – to know that we have a place, and a role, and have value. And like Elphaba, we’ve probably all been stuck in a situation where we’ve felt we can’t speak our mind, or even be heard at all – ABOVE what others have “decided” we’re saying. That, friends, is an ongoing human experience that’s timeless.
How Wicked cast the perfect leading pair
With her obvious lived experience, it seems like a no-brainer to cast supremely accomplished Black musical theatre star Cynthia Erivo as the vilified Elphaba. It’s not like she doesn’t have the chops: she’s only one step away from EGOT status, for goodness’ sake. Yet Erivo herself has pointed out that “Historically, Black women have never really been seen for the role.” Out of 7,500 performances worldwide, only one Black actress (Alexia Khadime) has ever played Elphaba on stage.
We know what you’re thinking: are we still having the “diversity casting” debate? Whether you lay the blame on web trolls, timid producers, or strong competition, the fact remains that Black representation within blockbuster IP is still a rarity – and when it happens, there’s backlash that invariably gets ugly. We’re still living in a Little Mermaid world.
Ironically, plenty of the peeps who lobbied for Elphaba to be played by Idina Menzel – who made the part famous on Broadway – entirely missed the memo: Menzel is Jewish and the stage show was created by Jewish writers Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman. “I think a lot of musical theatre themes speak to Jewish audiences, because in many instances musicals are about outsiders, striving to discover how they might fit in,” Schwartz has said. “Wicked is not overtly Jewish-themed but it certainly resonates with many Jewish people’s experience.”
Now, audiences are seeing for themselves how a part written with an explicitly antisemitic subtext has been revolutionised by a Black actress – adding depth and impact by bringing her OWN subtext to the character’s new, on-screen persona. “I know just what it’s like to feel like you don’t fit. Like you’re outside of the ordinary, like there’s no room for you,” Erivo stated in a recent interview. “I used Elphaba as this wonderful opportunity to share that experience.”
Erivo’s outstanding in the film, and she’s not alone. Ariana Grande copped plenty of eyerolls when she was announced as well – punters thought she was “too pop” for a musical, or that it was merely stunt casting to cash in on her fame (Grande is planet Earth’s 3rd-most followed woman on Instagram). But she’s got the chops, too: “Ari” landed her first major role on Broadway at 15, before racking up nine No. 1 hits, eight Grammy nominations, and 51 billion music streams. Now, for Glinda – the role she’s coveted for a decade – she’s pulling in serious Oscar buzz.
It’s not surprising; the cute, airy pops of humour and hilariously ego-driven one-liners are all there. But Grande is smart enough to play the yin to Erivo’s yang. She knows that Elphaba’s pain is even more stark against Glinda’s privilege. One of Grande’s best lines is when she acknowledges, blinking in shock, “Something’s off – I didn’t get what I wanted!” We all know that if people simply like you, it’s so much easier to get what you want in the world. Ariana nails creating a character who knows that, and still makes her someone we like and admire.
Okay, let’s talk about those Wicked haters
If you judge a book by its cover (or a movie by its socials), Wicked has had a bumpy ride from the moment its broomstick first hit the zeitgeist. Since the SuperBowl trailer dropped back in February, the digital knives were OUT and flying around the web like a tornado around Kansas. Commenters said the CGI looked like “sludge” and the movie would bomb harder than infamous disaster Cats. And when news broke that Wicked would be split into two feature-length halves, the move was howled down as a soulless studio cash grab.
Then, star Cynthia Erivo whipped up a strange clapback controversy in October, when she reacted STRONGLY to a fan-edit of the movie’s poster. Erivo called it “the most offensive thing I have seen” and “deeply hurtful”, which seemed… a little OTT. A few weeks later Erivo admitted she was feeling overly protective of Elphaba, adding “I probably should've called my friends.”
In publicity terms, it wasn’t a dream start – but things got weirder when an interview clip went viral over Erivo’s incredible solemn response to hearing “people are taking the lyrics of ‘Defying Gravity’ and really holding space with that.” Seems like a pretty basic (if slightly clunky) phrase – but the clip is so odd, it’s racked up over 65 million views on X alone, with commenters calling it a “bizarre, baffling exchange” and one user saying “I've watched this 30 times, and I still can't parse a single thing going on here.”
The point is, all of this is usually BAD NEWS for a big-budget (and beloved) franchise property. Millions of eyeballs are on it, hundreds of millions more have been spent, and many are just WAITING for it to fail. Any hint of tension, controversy or spilled tea and the wolves will pounce: look at the fraught press tours for Don’t Worry Darling and It Ends With Us, both of which were plagued by reports of fiery director & star feuds after refusing to publicise their film together.
With Wicked, though, the opposite is true. The cast and crew, especially Erivo and Grande, have been involved in their roles for YEARS. They care, hard. Erivo’s been quick to explain her strong reaction as coming from a place of genuine personal investment: “I'm passionate about it… for me it was just like a human moment of wanting to protect little Elphaba.” Their co-stars have seen it first hand, too. Ethan Slater, who plays Boq (and happens to be Ariana Grande’s boyfriend), described the two leads as “kind of soul mates” IRL.
“It’s an emotional process to dive into characters who go through such a journey. It’s been a really long and intense process. When you do that, you really bond with the people you’re around,” the actor explained. “Their friendship is really real and really deep and really informed by the work that they did together.”
Wicked’s themes are more than skin deep
Broadway hits rely on a suspension of disbelief. With the right ingredients, even the oddest of ideas can take flight on stage… but in the delicate translation to screen, they crash-land. Take Cats: something about that core premise of humans playing felines – which theatre audiences lapped up (sorry) for decades – just didn’t work at the movies.
From the outside, it’s easy to paint Wicked with the same brush. Isn’t it all a bit… silly? There’s a blonde Godiva who floats in a bubble. A green woman who was raised by a bear (and whose father may or may not be a wizard). And when they meet at a Hogwarts-style university, we find out their professor, Dr. Dillamond, is a talking goat. These aren’t exactly the trappings of a thoughtful, award-winning piece of drama. But peel back the colours of any GOOD fantasy and you’ll usually find the allegories are rich and meaningful. With its themes of parental guilt, absent fatherhood, disability, discrimination and class supremacy, Wicked is no exception.
Take the talking animals – just a cute side-note, right? Not quite: Dillamond (voiced by Peter Dinklage) hints that “something bad” is happening in Oz. Underneath the glittering emerald facade, there’s a dark underbelly to this weird and wonderful world. One by one, animals are losing their ability to speak and live on their own terms; ultimately, Dillamond is arrested by the Wizard’s forces and removed from his teaching role. We only have to look to history to see the playbook: stripping the animals of their “voice” is a direct allegory for historical oppression. Think of the gradual erosion of rights and freedoms experienced by Jews under Nazi rule.
The allegory shows how easily societies can be manipulated to turn against minority groups. When the “Wonderful” Wizard's new regime uses propaganda to justify the persecution, it’s an echo of fear campaigns like the Nazi’s anti-semitic misinformation of the 1930s, or the awful rhetoric that Trump uses against migrants today. Painting minority groups as “animals” makes it easier to rule the majority. It’s us versus them, and Dillamond is (quite literally) a scape-“goat”. For diverse audiences entering an era of Trump 2.0, Wicked’s innocent minorities being threatened with deportation suddenly resonates.
Of course, Elphaba’s green skin is also an obvious metaphor for “otherness”, and a crucial element that Wicked’s themes pivot around. Her main physical trait has always marked her out as different - she’s never been normal, never been “one of the group”, never belonged. This is true not only socially, but within her family: Elphaba’s father clearly favours her sister, Nessarose, who wasn’t “born green” (the fact that she’s wheelchair-bound adds another emotionally complicated layer).
As Wicked reaches its climax, and Elphaba is subjected to increasing pressure, there’s also a fascinating insight into whether “becoming wicked” is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If people insist on labeling you, do you eventually become that label? Novelist Gregory Maguire pondered that very idea in conceiving his novel, explaining in a 2008 CNN interview, “If everyone was always calling you a bad name, how much of that would you internalize? How much of that would you say, all right, go ahead, I'll be everything that you call me because I have no capacity to change your minds anyway so why bother. By whose standards should I live?”
This is palpable in the film’s finale, when Erivo belts out the famous Act 1 curtain-dropper “Defying Gravity” with such gusto that audiences are leaving the cinema in tears. It’s a pivotal turning point in the arc of Elphaba’s character, where she finally rejects the tokenism she’s felt throughout her life and fully reclaims her power. But again, this “me” moment can be read in lots of ways; it’s powerful, for example, that Cynthia Erivo is herself a queer woman.
In May of 2024, Erivo spoke at the Los Angeles LGBT Center Gala. Her satisfaction was evident when she described Elphaba’s journey: “a colorful, powerful, magical woman who — despite being disparaged, demonized, and discriminated against — becomes a hero.” She went on to say, “Wicked is a reclamation and a reimagining of all the labels that are used against her. It is the proclamation of her right to exist in all her power.”
Speaking with Variety, queer media journalist Tracy E. Gilchrist said: “It can suddenly take on new meaning when you’re a queer person. The Trump administration is targeting LGBTQ+ people via Project 2025. When Cynthia sings “I’m through accepting limits,” there’s power in that. She plays a character who comes to her full power when she is exiled by a charlatan, by a cruel leader. There’s a lot of resonance there right now for anyone who is marginalized.”
The cherry on top? There’s more people paying attention to Gilchrist right now than ever: she’s the journalist that’s gone viral alongside Erivo for the “holding space” interview. Can’t wait for her to launch a podcast with that as the title.
What are critics saying about Wicked?
“A blockbuster for our times, one that doesn’t shy away from contending with the darkness of contemporary politics and society.”
- Coleman Spilde, Salon.com
“Wicked belongs to Erivo. Her eyes are an expressive window into the character’s lifetime of hurt and exclusion… making Elphaba the bruised, beating heart of the film.”
- David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
“Early objections to the casting seem absurd when you clock what a perfect complement they make.”
- Donald Clarke, Irish Times
So what’s the takeaway from Wicked?
Even a scarecrow without a brain could tell you this is a big-screen experience that’s going to be incredibly… yep, POPULAR. Wicked really does tick those all-important boxes we alluded to up top; just look at its production values (stunning), its performances (electric), its songs & choreo (iconic) and its uplifting impact (totes emoshe rollercoaster).
Look, we’re not saying Wicked’s perfect. At 2 hours 40 minutes, it’s knocking HARD on the “too long, wrap it up!” door. And there’s characters that either overdo it a bit (Governor Thropp) or arguably, don’t add much at all (oh Pfannee, do you even go to this school?).
But that’s a bit like complaining about a scratch on a speedboat. A sleek, wondrous craft that can whiz you somewhere thrilling, and change you along the way. We didn’t have crazy high expectations – hey, the everyday moviegoer isn’t a hardcore Broadway fan – but honestly? You don’t need to be. Wicked is a movie for anyone. And maybe that’s why it feels so GOOD.
Keen for that deal to catch Wicked in cinemas?
More Guides about New Releases
Looking at the latest films through an impact lens
