Jonathan Bailey’s next role will have him following the yellow brick road down to Oz.
It’s official! Bridgerton hottie Jonathan Bailey has joined the cast of Jon M. Chu’s upcoming Wicked movies, and we can’t wait to see the star “dancing through life.”
View this post on Instagram
Related | Lea Michele Responds to Literacy Rumors on TikTok
For anyone unfamiliar with Wicked, the story is based on the characters from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. An author named Gregory Maguire wrote a prequel story for Elphaba and Glinda called Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which was then adapted into a Broadway musical. It explains how Elphaba became the Wicked Witch of the West and why she didn’t get along with Glinda the Good.
Rumors that Bailey would be joining the cast began earlier this week and were later confirmed by Chu.
“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,” he tweeted on Wednesday. “We have a Fiyero!!!! #JonathanBailey #Wicked.”
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!!!! #JonathanBailey #Wicked https://t.co/meT51cGqDe
— Jon M. Chu (@jonmchu) September 21, 2022
Who is Bailey Playing?
Bailey will play Elphaba’s love interest, Fiyero. He is an Arjiki prince from the Vinkus who attends Shiz University. It was previously announced that Cynthia Erivo would play Elphaba and pop star Ariana Grande is Glinda. Chu has also revealed that the prequel story is too big for one film, so naturally, he is making two.
“Here’s what happened: 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,” Chu shared 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!!!!”
The first film is set to release in December of 2024, with the second film coming one year later. The screenplay is being adapted by Wicked composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz and writer Winnie Holzman.
