Wicked's Two-Part Release Plan Avoids A Problem With The Musical We Don't Like To Admit

The Wicked movie’s two-part release could improve upon a snag in the stage musical that its fans either ignore or won’t care to admit. It’s an effortless feat to shrug off any drawbacks of the Wicked stage production, as the musical is near flawless and commonly regarded as one of the best of the 21st century. Loosely based on Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the musical brings to life a compelling portrait of the Wicked Witch, helping to discount the antagonistic narrative of her that’s depicted by The Wizard of Oz.

Wicked’s story, along with its history of fantastic stage performances, originally starring legendary singer/actresses Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, burgeoned into a cultural phenomenon, giving rise to numerous productions across the years and, of late, a highly anticipated Wicked movie adaptation. The stage production’s all but immaculate legacy makes it easy to doubt that the Wicked movie can improve on the original musical or that the musical has any flaws at all. However, with expanded cinematic plans, the Wicked movie naturally has the space to develop a part of the story that the musical arguably stumbles on.

Wicked Part 1 Can Spend Longer Showing Elphaba & Glinda’s Friendship Blossom

The Musical Develops Their Friendship In A Matter Of Scenes

The musical’s first act establishes much of the Wicked Witch’s origins, including how Elphaba was once friends with Glinda the Good Witch (formerly known as Galinda) in her college years, though, at first, their relationship was troubled. Marked differences, jealousy, and even instances of bullying made it hard for them to connect – but when Elphaba and Glinda finally became friends, it was at rocket speed. Despite fostering heavy hatred between the two, the musical develops their friendship in a matter of scenes, which is hard to buy when their feelings for one another were once as “fervid as a flame.”

Elphaba and Glinda’s relationship grew as intensely as it did quickly, and they formed a sisterly bond that’s become one of the musical’s best parts. Whereas much of the first act developed from mutual disdain, just a few scenes actually featured them reveling in their friendship, like in the brief instances when Glinda gave Elphaba a makeover or when Elphaba invited Glinda to see the Wizard of Oz. While the musical doesn’t afford enough time for their friendship to blossom, the Wicked movie’s two-part release means it can explore the evolution of Elphaba and Glinda’s relationship more profoundly.

The musical gets away with fashioning Elphaba and Glinda into instantaneous friends because it has the capability of suspending the disbelief of audiences. By act one’s conclusion, when Elphaba and Glinda part ways after becoming companions (“Defying Gravity”), the cast comes out to bow, and the stage appears for intermission, making it easy for audiences to overlook or forget how quickly their friendship formed and changed in the span of a few scenes. The movie won’t have this advantage but could improve on the musical if it devotes time in part one to focusing on Elphaba and Glinda’s friendship period.

Elphaba & Glinda’s Friendship Would Have Been Too Rushed In A Single Movie

Wicked’s Immense Story Is A Lot To Cover

Granted that the musical fast-forwarded through Elphaba and Glinda’s relationship and used stage production magic to cushion the impact, it’s hard to fault it because the Wicked canon is incredibly extensive compared to the standard duration of a stage play. Though inspired by Maguire’s canon, the musical strives to cover Elphaba’s evolution from college past the events of The Wizard of Oz, the intricate politics of Oz that shape her worldview, and everything in between. The musical’s success proves it triumphantly packed enough of the lore into its short time span, but the Wicked movie format will undoubtedly struggle.

Wicked’s two-part movie plan is brilliant, considering that even its near-flawless predecessor labored to get the most out of Wicked’s story. If a standard film averages 80 and 120 minutes long and the musical has around 40 minutes and creditworthy stage techniques over it, then the Wicked movie would fail tremendously in sticking to the confines of one film.

Most everything in Wicked’s story, including Elphaba and Glinda’s friendship, would feel rushed or negated, but luckily, with two films to cover canon, the upcoming movies will have the time to develop the story and the space to evolve it further.

The Audience Has Accepted Two Part Releases Like This Before

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Is The Best Example

There have been several movie adaptations that have broken their story into two parts in the last 15 years. Many of them have been adaptations of young adult novels. The best example might be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows though.

The Harry Potter movies adapted seven novels and some of those novels are much longer than others, meaning that a lot of content didn’t make it into the movies. A lot of the content that actually sets up the Deathly Hallows, in fact, didn’t make it into the movies. So, when it came time to adapt the seventh book, it was broken into two scripts. The first primarily sees the main characters on the journey to track down the hallows. The second primarily focuses on the climax of war.

This separation of the two parts of the story worked in the movie’s favor because these two halves have very different tones, but the same energy of amping up toward a conclusion. The first is slower-paced and even melancholy while the second is faster and more hopeful. The first movie is halted at a spot that leaves the audience wanting more and waiting for the second. All of that meant that the audience was going to want to go to theaters to see the second part.

Other young adult adaptations didn’t exactly fare as well.

There Are Potential Problems With A Two Part Release

There Has To Be An Even Story Being Told

The biggest problem with two-part releases is that the two halves of the story are not presented evenly or compellingly enough for the audience to want to see the entire story play out. More jaded fans of franchises tend to see splitting a movie into two parts as a cash grab. That’s exactly what fans accused the producers of the Twilight Saga and The Hunger Games of when the final adaptations in each of the original trilogies of novels were split into two movies.

The decision to split them was made right after Deathly Hallows did it. The Twilight Saga didn’t end up faring as badly as The Hunger Games from that decision. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is seen as the worst of the movies because it doesn’t keep the same level of energy as the other three in Katniss’s journey. That’s because it’s adapting a story that is mostly about the character’s mental state. Much of the book is about how Katniss is internally reacting to what’s going on around her, and that didn’t translate well to the screen.

In the case of Wicked, there is absolutely enough material to make the movie work in two parts, especially if aspects of the novel that weren’t used in the stage show are used in the movie, or if parts of the stage show that flash by are more fleshed out. The bigger problem with Wicked isn’t the idea that producers might just want to make more money off of a longer story, but that they aren’t actually presenting it to the public as a two-part movie.

It’s very likely that the first movie will end with “Defying Gravity” like the stage show does. The average person whose interest is piqued by the trailers or the posters might not know that though, since the promotional materials for the movie haven’t labeled it as Wicked: Part 1. At least with the other movies, fans knew going in that the story was being split into two pieces because everything associated with the movies labeled it that way. Wicked will simply need to make sure that both halves of the movie create a coherent and energetic narrative that fans understand is in two pieces.