Bridgerton's Jonathan Bailey Joins Wicked Film Adaptation

Wicked has found its Fiyero!

The long-awaited and hotly debated screen adaptation of the Broadway musical has cast none other than Bridgerton’s own Jonathan Bailey as the man who ends up being embroiled in a love triangle with the two leads.

“He’s perfect, they’re perfect. They’d be perfect together. Born to be forever,” director Jon M. Chu tweeted after the news broke, referencing one of the show’s songs, “Dancing Through Life.”

Bailey joins Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who are taking on the roles of Elphaba and Galinda, respectively. Additional cast members have yet to be announced for the adaptation, which has been split into two separate movies slated for release in December 2024 and December 2025.

Wicked tells a reimagined origin story of the Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West, known here as Elphaba. It began as a novel by Gregory Maguire and exploded as a musical theater adaptation that has been running on Broadway since 2003.

Although both the musical and the book feature Elphaba and Galinda both falling for Fiyero, the subtext of the book allows for more of a queer interpretation than its adaptation. Maguire himself even reportedly signed a copy of Wicked’s sequel with the message “Gelphie is real,” referring to the portmanteau the ship is known by.

The films are expected to follow the stage production story more than the novel, so the love triangle is likely to stay incomplete and focused around Bailey’s Fiyero, but fans are still hyped about the casting — and that a gay man is being cast as a leading man in such major films.

Unfortunately, the wait to see how this all comes together will be a long one, but there are undoubtedly more casting announcements to keep the magic alive along the way.

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