It looks like the upcoming Wicked films have their Wizard of Oz. As it turns out: it’s Jeff Goldblum. Yes, you read that right. Dr. Ian Malcolm will be the mighty yet despicable authoritarian ruler of Oz. Well, he will certainly be a strange yet memorable magical dictator at the very least.

Life Will Find the Yellow Brick Road

Jeff Goldblum image from IMDb.
He’s appropriately dressed for the role to boot.

Variety has just reported that Jeff Goldblum is currently in final talks to play the tyrannical Wizard of Oz in the upcoming Wicked films by Jon M. Chu. Just to be clear though: Goldblum hasn’t actually agreed to the role yet. He could still back out at the last minute if he wanted to. However, he’s already in final talks for the role anyways, so his backing out at that point seems extremely unlikely. We’ll just have to wait for later to find out if Goldblum takes the role. Tune back into THS later to find out if we can confirm it.

Wicked: Details

"Wicked" Broadway poster.
As dark as it looks, at least if you’re talking about the original book.

Wicked is an upcoming film duology based on the 2003 Broadway musical stage play of the same name, which itself is based on the 1995 dark fantasy novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. We don’t know much about the film duology yet, mostly because it still hasn’t even entered production yet. What we do know though is this: Jonathan Murray Chu (Step Up 2: The Streets, Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights) will direct the duology. The cast currently consists of Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, Ariana Grande as Glinda, and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero.

As for what the Wicked duology will be about? Well, we don’t have any kind of official synopsis for the films yet for obvious reasons. However, we do have a synopsis of the musical taken straight from the official website. Check it out below:

SO MUCH HAPPENED BEFORE DOROTHY DROPPED IN

WICKED LOOKS AT WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LAND OF OZ – BUT FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE

THERE IS A YOUNG WOMAN, BORN WITH EMERALD-GREEN SKIN – SMART, FIERY, MISUNDERSTOOD AND POSSESSING AN EXTRAORDINARY TALENT. WHEN SHE MEETS A BUBBLY BLONDE WHO IS EXCEPTIONALLY POPULAR…

THEIR INITIAL RIVALRY TURNS INTO THE UNLIKELIEST OF FRIENDSHIPS…

UNTIL THE WORLD DECIDES TO CALL ONE GOOD AND THE OTHER ONE WICKED.

You can purchase tickets to the Wicked Broadway stage play straight from the said official website.

Source: Variety