With Wicked: For Good slated to open in the U.S. on Nov. 21, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande will be in the Oscar conversation for the second year in a row. Both stars were nominated earlier this year for the first Wicked – Erivo for best actress for playing Elphaba and Grande for best supporting actress for playing Galinda/Glinda.

If they are nominated again when the nominations for the 98th annual Academy Awards are announced on Jan. 22, 2026, they will become just the seventh and eighth actors to be nominated for playing the same role in two different films.

Moreover, they’ll become the first actors to be nominated for playing the same role two years running since Bing Crosby in the mid-1940s, who received back-to-back nominations for playing genial Father Charles “Chuck” O’Malley. An

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