A Broadway musical will be taken into the big screens in two parts for the first time. Universal recently announced that the hit show Wicked will become a film, with the first part set to release on December 25, 2024, and the second on December 25, 2025.

The movie’s director Jon M. Chu took to social media to reveal who will play the roles of the Witches of Oz. In a lengthy statement, the filmmaker said that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo would continue sharing the stories of Glinda and Elphaba, based on the bestselling novel by Gregory Maguire.

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“As we prepared the production over the past year, it became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to wrestle the story of ‘Wicked’ into a single film without doing some real damage to it. As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions felt like fatal compromises to the source material that has entertained us all for so many years,” Chu wrote on Twitter.

The 2-hour and 45-minute musical is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz and tells the story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda the Good Witch and their friendship.

Grande took to Instagram to echo the news by sharing the statement and sheet music. “some thrillifying news :) #WickedMovies,” the singer and actress wrote.