Lin-Manuel Miranda was one of several celebrities competing for a role in the 2024 Wicked film, but did not win. You would imagine that the actor and songwriter’s association with hit musicals like Hamilton, Moana, Mufasa: The Lion King, Mary Poppins Returns, Tick, Tick… Boom!, Encanto and others would provide him with freedom.
But it turned out that director Jon M. Chu was strict with his casting. Speaking to Variety, he revealed that the Hamilton star made “several calls” to him, pitching himself for a very specific role. Chu revealed that Miranda – with whom he worked in the 2021 musical In the Heights – wanted to play the Munchkinland citizen.
The character who asks Glinda (Ariana Grande) of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) at the beginning of the film, “Is it true that you were her friend?” The director explained that he had to turn down his request because it would have been “too distracting”.
He added, “Sorry, Lynn!” Miranda not only made those calls but also tweeted Chu, asking him for a specific but small role in the musical. “Wicked movie! Finally,” he wrote on X at the time.
He then requested Stephen Daldry, who was attached to the film in the early stages, if he could “play the guy who says, ‘Is it true that you were his friend?!'” The role eventually went to actress Kirsty Anne Shaw. Got it.
Still, there were no hard feelings between Chu and Miranda as the two were seen smiling together at the National Board of Review Awards Gala in NYC earlier this month. Chu also received the Best Director award for Wicked at the ceremony.
Erivo and Grande starred in the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Dinklage, Marisa Bode, Bowen Yang and Keala Settle, among others, star. Wicked was one of the biggest blockbusters of last year, collecting $709 million at the global box office.
