Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey lands majorly Wicked movie role
Bailey will star as Fiyero opposite Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
John Phillips/WireImage
- Patrick Cremona
Published: Thursday, 22 September 2022 at 10:57 am
Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey has landed the role of Fiyero in the upcoming two-part film adaptation of hit musical Wicked – joining Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in the cast.
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The news was confirmed by director John M Chu on Wednesday 21st September, with the filmmaker writing on Twitter: "He’s perfect, they’re perfect. They’d be perfect together. Born to be forever….. I am too excited to pretend this hasn’t been happening. We have a Fiyero!!!!"
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Fiyero is at the centre of a love triangle between Wicked Witch of the West Elphaba (Erivo) and Glinda the Good Witch (Grande) in the Wizard of Oz prequel, something which ends up having major repercussions for all three characters.
The musical – which originally opened on Broadway in 2003 and in the West End in 2006 – has been a huge hit around the world, and a film adaptation had long been in the works.
Although originally intended to be just one film, it was revealed earlier this year that it would now be released in two parts – the first arriving on Christmas Day 2024 and the second exactly a year later.
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Explaining why the decision to divide the film had been made, Chu said: "As we prepared the production over the last year, it became 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 began to feel like fatal compromises to the source material that has entertained us all for so many years.
"We decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one Wicked movie but two! With more space, we can tell the story of Wicked as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys for these beloved characters."
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Authors
Patrick CremonaSenior Film Writer
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
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