The big-screen adaptation of the incredibly popular musical, "Wicked," has been in the works for quite some time, with an original release date of December 2019.

Today, director John M. Chu announced via Twitter that the long-anticipated movie would be released as two movies, on subsequent Christmas holidays, starting in 2024:

An excerpt from the announcement:

As we prepared the production over the last year, it became 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 that has entertained us all for so many years. We decided to give ourselves a bigger canvas and make not just one WICKED movie but TWO!!!! With more space, we can tell the story of WICKED as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys for these beloved characters.

Select the Read link to view the original announcement on Twitter.

The second-highest Broadway musical of all time, "Wicked" tells the story of what happened in Oz before Dorothy arrived. Think of it as a prequel to the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz.

Chu became known to audiences with the surprise hit, Crazy Rich Asians, in 2018, and he also directed the big-screen adaptation of another musical with last year's In the Heights. The movies are carrying over Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the music and lyrics for the musical, as well as Marc Platt as producer. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are currently listed as having the lead roles of Glinda and Elphaba, respectively.

Wicked - Part 1 opens in theaters Wednesday, December 25, 2024 and Wicked - Part 2 opens in theaters Thursday, December 25, 2025.