Bowen Yang joins Jonathan Bailey and Ariana Grande in the Wicked film adaptation

10th December 2022

SNL star Bowen Yang has joined the upcoming movie adaptation of Wicked.

Over the last couple of years, information regarding the highly anticipated film has slowly started to leaked to the public.

In November 2021, Broadway powerhouse Cynthia Erivo and beloved pop icon Ariana Grande were announced as Elphaba and Glinda, respectively.

Nearly a year later, director John M Chu revealed that Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey signed on to play the lovable Prince Fiyero.

“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!!!!” the Crazy Rich Asians director wrote on Twitter.

Now it looks like the film has wrapped up its principal cast with an array of notable actors, including Yang.

According to a report from Deadline, the Fire Island star has been tapped to play Elphaba and Glinda’s Shiz University classmate Pfannee.

Shortly after the news was announced, the Bros star celebrated his casting by poking fun at the musical’s One Short Day lyrics on Instagram.

“What the f*ck is a “hoi polloi”????” he wrote alongside a photo of a heart with Glinda written in the center.

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A post shared by Bowen Yang (@fayedunaway)

Additional casting for the forthcoming musical includes Marissa Bode as Elphaba’s younger sister Nessa, Bronwyn James as Shiz student ShenShen, Keala Settle as Miss Coddle, Aaron Teoh as Avaric, Colin Michael Carmichael as Nikidki, Jeff Goldblum as The Wizard, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible and Ethan Slater as Boq.

The recent Wicked news comes a few months after Chu announced that the movie would be split into two parts – with the first film being released in 2024 and the second in 2025.

“As we prepared this production over the last 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,” he explained on social media.

“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.

“So 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 of these beloved characters.

Based on the best-selling novel and stage musical of the same name, Universal’s Wicked feature is set to follow Elphaba and Glinda as they navigate their unlikely friendship, the Wizard’s corrupt government, love and heartbreak.

Tune in to GAY TIMES for more Wicked updates.