Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo were not director’s first choice for ‘Wicked’

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were second choice for the role of “Elphaba” and “Glinda” of the movie’s director Jon M. Chu.

In a recent interview with SFX Magazine, Wicked director shared that before casting Erivo and Grande in the lead roles, for the highly anticipated film adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical, he first wanted to go for casting newcomers.

“I wanted to have a very clear slate coming into Wicked,” the 45-year-old recalled. “It's a big enough property on its own, so we can discover two people. I was like, ‘We're gonna find no-namers.’”

“But then we got calls from all these great actresses who wanted to audition and we saw everybody, and they were all really great,” he added. “Anyone could have done this role, except there were two people who were meant to do this role, for this particular movie at this particular time.”

By “two people,” Chu meant Erivo and Grande.

Erivo, 37, and Grande, 31, revive the iconic roles of Elphaba and Glinda in the much-anticipated Wicked film adaptation, roles that originally became famous on Broadway by Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth in 2003.

Joining them in the star-studded cast are Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, Marissa Bode as Nessarose, Bowen Yang as Pfannee, Keala Settle as Miss Coddle, Ethan Slater as Boq, Peter Dinklage as Dr. Dillamond, and Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible.