Jon M. Chu is opening up about one of Wicked: For Good’s most emotional moments and why he wouldn’t let the studio lay eyes on it until the movie was completely finished.
Spoilers ahead for Wicked: For Good.
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The director told Business Insider that he flat-out refused to show Universal executives the film’s final shot: a close-up of Glinda (Ariana Grande) whispering into Elphaba’s (Cynthia Erivo) ear, a direct recreation of the iconic original Broadway poster.
“Yes. It was always the plan. I was always going to end on the whisper,” the director shared. “Do you know how hard it was to force Universal to never use it in any marketing material? They even had a poster of it for the first movie, and I was like, ‘Why are we releasing this poster? We should never acknowledge the whisper. Never. Never.’”
“I wanted it to feel like we didn’t care about it,” he continued, “then suddenly it’s the last shot in For Good. So the studio never saw that final shot. I imposed a huge thing: ‘Do not show this shot!’ They wanted it so badly.”
Jon also revealed he has no idea what Ariana whispered to Cynthia while filming the moment.
“That poster is one of the most brilliant posters ever made,” said the filmmaker. “You don’t know what Glinda’s saying, because they never actually do that in the musical. But it’s sort of the key to friendship. That we have these secrets. And the girls got to choose what they are actually saying in the scene. I don’t even know what they said.”
And Cynthia agrees, telling Today she “would never say” what Ariana whispered.
Wicked: For Good is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Explaining the ending and the differences between the movie and the Broadway show.
