Years of developing a film adaptation of Stephen Schwartz’s Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Bad is something we’ve been waiting for. Finally, Jon M. Chu brings the fans they’ve been waiting for, and with a star-studded cast, we can’t wait to see this movie! Bad will be a two-part film series based on the 1995 musical and novel by Gregory Maguire Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Bad took ten years to find the cast and start production. There was a failed adaptation attempt in 2012 and director changes, but Universal’s Bad finally comes to the big screen! We’re sure the movie will be beautifulso here’s everything we know about Jon M. Chu’s Bad so far.
Wicked: The Plot
Bad will be based on the novel by Gregory Maguire Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz Bad. According to the lead role actress Cynthia Erivo, the film will be different from the musical and “unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.” Sounds exciting!
In April 2022, director Jon M. Chu made a statement about the film on Twitter. This announcement revealed that there are two films in the… Bad series and that the content of the musical was too large to fit into just one movie.
Since we don’t have a plot synopsis for the movie yet, here’s a recap of the musical’s story:
“Bad, the Broadway sensation, looks at what happened in the Land of Oz… but from a different angle. Long before Dorothy arrives, there is another girl, born with emerald green skin – smart, fiery, misunderstood and with an extraordinary talent. When she meets a bubbly blonde who is extremely popular, their initial rivalry turns into the most unlikely of friendship… until the world decides to call one ‘good’ and the other ‘bad.’
Wicked: The Cast
The cast so far includes Cynthia Erivo as the Wicked Witch of the West and Ariana Grande like the good witch Galinda. Jonathan Bailey was confirmed as the third lead actor and romantic interest, Fiyero.
For a movie musical, the singing talent of the cast is crucial, and Jon M. Chu’s choices have been phenomenal so far. Cynthia Erivo is best known for her role as Celie in the Broadway production of The Color Purple, where she took home the Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress. Erivo also received two Academy Award nominations for her role as Harriet Tubman in the biopic Harriet and for the original song “Stand Up” she wrote and performed for the film.
Ariana Grande’s singing skills are without a doubt, and her 2020 cover of “The Wizard and I” from the musical Bad makes us sure she’ll nail her role as Galinda in the movie. Jonathan Bailey is perhaps best known for his role as Anthony in Bridgerton, but he is also an incredibly talented and award-winning stage and musical theater actor. With the three leads of Bad because we are so talented, we are sure that this film will stay true to its musical theater origins.
Wicked: A very different story about Oz
Frank L. Baum’s The Wizard of Oz series is well known, even though the first book was published in 1900, more than 100 years ago! The Ozo stories have captivated generation after generation thanks to their charm and many adaptations. The most notable Ozo adaptation was in 1939 The Wizard of Oz movie, starring a young Judy Garland as Dorothy, a girl who is swept away to the land of Oz after a tornado sweeps through her house.
The popularity of The Wizard of Oz led to many more adaptations – some that stayed close to the source material and others that took exciting new directions. Hollywood’s love for the Ozo franchise has seen countless movies over the decades, as of 2013 Oz the great and mighty to the hit adaptation the Wizo in 1978. Even the Muppets went to Ozo in 2005.
One of the most popular and famous Ozo adaptations is the musical by Stephen Schwartz Bad, which was nominated for 10 Tony Awards in 2004, took home 3 and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2005. The show is an adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the Westwhich became a New York Times Bestseller upon its release.
Bad is a revisionist parallel story to The Wizard of Ozwhich follows the Wicked Witch of the West from her adolescence to her death, as it happens in The Wizard of Oz. Through Badwe see another side of the Wicked Witch and learn that the clear division between “good” and “evil” in the Ozo stories may not be such a good thing. We can’t wait to see how Bad translates to the big screen!
Publication date
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The release date for Bad is scheduled for December 2024, and the second film is scheduled for December 2025 the following year.