Wicked Movie's 2-Part Split Creates A Big Musical Problem To Overcome
Jon Chu’s decision to split his adaptation of the Wicked musical into two films is a revolutionary idea that comes with a major structural hurdle and problem to overcome. This will be the first movie adaptation of the stage production inspired by Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked, rather than another take on L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wizard of Oz. Chu has already directed a movie adaptation of a stage musical—2021’s In the Heights—which could ease the minds of would-be critics. However, In the Heights was a single film. Creating a two-part adaptation for Wicked will come with a hefty challenge.
When it comes to stage play adaptations, the most complicated part for screenplay writers and composers is condensing the two-act structure into one film. Each act’s plot has its own beginning, middle, and end, so trimming songs, side arcs, and even characters always means the film is at risk of losing the story’s heart. Jon Chu turning his Wicked adaptation into a duology seems like an embarrassingly obvious solution.
Related: Why Wicked Fans Are So Against A James Corden Casting
What makes Wicked tricky, however, is that its story exists within a frame: Glinda the Good Witch and the citizens of Oz celebrating the death of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch, in the opening song “No One Mourns the Wicked.” Even trickier, the musical never pauses at any point to return to the frame. Instead, once the story enters the past, it runs chronologically all the way to Elphaba’s death. So, the finale brings audiences back to the moment of the opening scene. Without an existing interstitial that returns to the frame, splitting the adaptation isn’t a matter of just giving each act its own movie.
What makes the end of the Wicked musical’s first act so
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