Who does Ariana Grande play in Wicked? All to know about her character

The first trailer of Wicked arrived on February 11, 2024, giving glimpses of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s characterizations in action. The musical fantasy film has Grande playing Glinda Upland, also called Glinda the Good, a character she wanted to play for years. Erivo plays Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West.

The movie acts as a prequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and is based on a stage musical whose screenplay was written by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman. The stage production was adapted from the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel titled Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Maguire took the setting and characters from L Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Announced by Universal Pictures in 2012, the movie has been in the making for more than a decade. It will have a November 2024 premiere.

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Wicked: Which character is Ariana Grande portraying?

Grande plays Glinda the Good in the movie (Image via Universal Pictures)

Ariana is portraying Glinda the Good, a positive character in the movie. The singer-actor had expressed the desire to play Glinda in a 2013 interview with KiddNation, as reported by EW. She had said she felt the character of Glinda would suit her better although she thought the songs for Elphaba would be fun.

When the host of the interview, Kidd Kraddick tasked her with finishing the lyrics of songs he was singing, she won the challenge proving she was an expert in the field. She remained connected to the story and the characters in various ways including performing The Wizard and I in 2018 during NBC’s 15th anniversary.

While the movie's making went through a long process of coming to fruition including getting shelved during the Covid times, Grande was finalized for the role in 2021 along with Erivo as the green witch. After hiring Jon M Chu of Crazy Rich Asians fame in 2021, the production started in 2022 which was again interrupted due to the Hollywood strikes.

However, with the strikes resolved, the movie is going through the final leg of post-production work. The release date for the movie is finalized for February 11. As the plot is divided into two parts, the first movie, Wicked, will be released in 2024 while the second part will arrive in November 2025.

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A brief sketch of Glinda’s character as per the original book

Glinda and Elphaba have an unusual friendship (Image via Universal Pictures)

Glinda is the fictional character from L Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz novels who is a powerful sorceress and protector of Princess Ozma. The books describe Glinda as a beautiful woman with long red hair and a white dress. She plays the most important role of seeking out Ozma and enthroning her as the rightful heir.

Glinda has the power of magic, charms, tools and instruments in her workshop that she employs in her work and which she taught the Wizard about. Baum’s Oz novels present Glinda as an enigmatic character who is wise and firm in her principles. She is not one to rush to stop all kinds of strife and discord.

If understood deeply, Glinda is a more balanced goodness and not a one-dimensional good character. The general opinion is that she is the adult anchor with unwavering ideologies, unlike other characters in the books.

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Summing up: More on Wicked, the 2024 movie

As per the books and the upcoming movie, Grande’s Glinda the Good is an unlikely friend of Erivo’s Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, who later turn into rivals. The movie has been in the works for more than a decade. In the movie, Glinda has golden hair, unlike the red hair in the books. The first look of the two lead cast members was revealed in the trailer.

The rest of the cast includes some big names such as award-winning actor Michelle Yeoh, veteran actor Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Keala Settle and many more. Distributed by Universal Pictures, Wicked is produced by Marc Platt and David Stone.

Wait for Wicked to arrive in theatres on November 27, 2024.