Massive ‘Wicked’ movie adaptation takes its time to soar, much less defy gravity Ariana Grande, left, and Cynthia Erivo in the movie “Wicked: Part I.” (Giles Keyte / Universal Pictures) ...

December 2022: Ethan Slater joins the cast of Wicked alongside Ariana Grande While Grande joined the cast of Wicked in November 2021, Slater’s role wasn’t confirmed until a year later in early ...

Deadline reported that Wicked would no longer be released in 2021 and, for the first time, the film had no release date or progress of which to speak. Making the film's future even more bleak was ...

Jon M. Chu, the mastermind behind Crazy Rich Asians and the film adaptation of Broadway's In the Heights, was later tapped to helm the Wicked movie in February 2021.

McKay is no stranger to political films. His most recent movie, 2021’s “Don’t Look Up,” was a timely apocalyptic thriller about how the world would respond (poorly) to a cataclysmic meteor.

Wicked broke a slew of box office records, becoming the biggest opening for a feature adaptation of a Broadway movie at $112.5M domestic, and overall with $473.2M stateside and $753M worldwide.

The winds have changed again for the long-awaited movie version of the hit musical "Wicked." Universal Pictures says Friday that the film will land in theaters on Dec. 22, 2021.