When Jon M. Chu signed on to make a movie of the beloved musical Wicked, he gave himself a nearly impossible challenge. For decades, the complicated prequel to the Wizard of Oz had seemed difficult if not impossible to adapt. After Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were cast as Elphaba and Galinda, respectively, the internet also had plenty of thoughts on whether they could pull off these iconic roles. Then Chu decided they’d split the story into two movies—a gambit naysayers were sure wouldn’t work, either.

As we now know, Chu’s adaptation did work, with the first film becoming the highest-grossing Broadway musical adaptation of all time after earning over $756 million worldwide. It was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning for costume design and production design. It also gave us

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