Wicked (titled onscreen as Wicked: Part I) is a 2024 American musical fantasy film directed by Jon M. Chu and written by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox. It is the first installment of a two-part film adaptation of the stage musical of the same name by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman, which is loosely based on the 1995 novel, in turn based on the Oz books and the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. The film covers the musical's first act. It stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp and Ariana Grande-Butera[b] as Galinda Upland, with Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum rounding out the principal cast. Set in the Land of Oz, before Dorothy Gale's arrival from Kansas, it follows Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, and her friendship with her classmate Galinda, who becomes Glinda the Good.