Jeff Goldblum will no longer be denying rumors that he will be 'defying gravity' - the actor has confirmed that he will starring in the upcoming film Wicked. Following reports last year that the 70-year-old was in final talks to appear in the long-awaited movie adaption of the beloved musical, Goldblum confirmed on Jimmy Kimmel Live for the first time that he will indeed be taking a trip to Oz - "I was just on the set of Wicked. I'm not supposed to talk about that. But it's been out and about."
It was reported that Goldblum would be appearing in the role of The Wizard, joining the star-studded cast that is confirmed to include Cynthia Erivo as Elephaba, Ariana Grande as Glinda, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero. The actor praised his co-stars Erivo and Grande, saying "you should see our witches... they are very good."
Production began on the film in December 2022, shooting in London where the actor shared that his children joined him on set. He went on to say that in preparation for the role "we showed them The Wizard of Oz, one of my favorite movies. It was too scary for them," with the actor even confessing that he had been reliving a childhood fear of witches while shooting the new adaptation: "I'll tell ya. I shouldn't talk about it, but I was shooting one day and I found myself tearing up in fear, a childhood fear came back to me."
Following the film's initial announcement all the way back in 2016, the film's release date has moved from an originally planned 2019 date to December 2024, before then being moved up a month to November 2024. It was also announced by the film's director Jon M. Chu that the project would now be released as two parts. The director explained "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. As we tried to cut songs or trim characters, those decisions began to feel like fatal compromises to the source material… So we decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas."
Chu will be joined behind the cameras of the film's production by some of those responsible for crafting the original Broadway production; Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, co-writers of the play's music and lyrics, will be returning to adapt the screenplay, joined by returning producer Marc Platt.
Part one of Wicked is set to be released in theaters on November 27th, 2024. Check out Goldblum's comments below: