Digital Spy recently reported that the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked will be split into two parts, and Stephen Schwartz told The Schwartz Scene why.
Schwartz, the composer and lyricist for the original musical, explained it was initially planned as one long movie, but it would have meant cutting important things.
"We kept running into two problems," said Schwartz. "The first is that even as a very long single movie, it required us cutting or omitting things that we wanted to include."
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He also explained that fans of the Broadway show would appreciate the decision to make two films.
Related: Wicked's long-delayed movie adaptation gets an unexpected update
Schwartz then revealed how the show has an intermission after the song 'Defying Gravity', which seemed like a good place to separate the films.
"We found it very difficult to get past 'Defying Gravity' without a break. That song is written specifically to bring a curtain down, and whatever scene followed it without a break just seemed hugely anti-climactic.
"So, for these two reasons, plus the excitement of doing something that's never been done before with a musical, we have decided to do two movies," he added.
Related: Wicked musical extended for more shows after exciting movie update
Part One will be released on December 25, 2024, and Part Two will be released a year later, on December 25, 2025.
Jon M Chu will direct with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo starring as Glinda and Elphaba, the Witches of Oz.
On Twitter, Chu revealed the decision to split the movie in two allowed the best version of the story to be told.
"As we prepared the 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 said.
Wicked will hit theatres worldwide on December 25, 2024, and December 25, 2025.
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Harriet is a freelance news writer specialising in TV and movies at Digital Spy.
A horror enthusiast, she joined Digital Spy after working on her own horror website, reviewing films and focusing largely on feminism in the genre.
In her spare time, Harriet paints and produces mixed-media art. She graduated from the University of Kingston with a BA in fine art, where she specialised in painting. She also has an MA in journalism from Birkbeck University.
