Among the most exciting upcoming 2024 movies on the way is Part 1 of the Wicked movie, starring Ariana Grande as Glinda the Good Witch. The movie will mark the pop star’s biggest acting role ever, and her brother, Frankie Grande, is throwing in some major early support for her performance in the big movie musical!
Frankie Grande is Ariana Grande’s older brother (by a decade), and he has an entertainment career in his own right, between being a host in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, and being on Big Brother for multiple seasons. When Grande recently spoke to Us Weekly, he shared his reaction to the Wicked movie. In his words:
During filming, I got to go to set. I was at a marketing event and I saw 14 minutes of the film, which is crazy. No CGI, no color correction, no nothing — and it was the best thing I’ve ever seen in my life… I have jokingly told my sister that I will need to prescreen this because if I see this movie by myself, the paramedics will need to be standing by because I don’t think I’ll be able to control myself.
Well, those are some major compliments!! As Frankie Grande shared, he has yet to see the entire first Wicked movie, but what he did see was footage that had yet to be finished. Even so, he is so hyped for part one of Glinda’s origin story that he asked his sister he if he could prescreen it. Why? So he can have paramedics “standing by” for him.
Frankie Grande also told the outlet that the footage he did see left him “weeping,” especially considering how full-circle the role is for his sister. Back when Ariana Grande was 10, the singer saw Wicked on Broadway and got to meet the production’s original Glinda, Kristen Chenoweth, backstage, where Grande sang for the Broadway star. All these years later, she has become Glinda herself, and received the stamp of approval from the OG actress! As Frankie continued:
Seeing someone who you’ve basically raised do something at that level, I can’t tell you what it feels like as her brother and her No. 1 fan and her No. 1 supporter to watch her succeed in that way. I know she’s gonna blow the whole world away. I just know it
During the interview, Frankie Grande also spoke about celebrating seven years of sobriety, which is a task he believes he would not have been able to accomplish without his pop star sister. Frankie shared that Ariana was “the first person” he told he needed help and she was the one who got him into treatment. Frankie also calls Ariana his “best friend,” so of course he’s her No. 1 hype person for Wicked!
Ariana Grande leads the Wicked cast alongside Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba/The Wicked Witch. The movie was directed by Jon M. Chu and has Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum as The Wizard, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible among other stars. You can check out the latest Wicked trailer here:
Wicked is the story of how The Wicked of the West became who she is. The movie is both based on the hit musical and the 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire. As mentioned earlier, the story has been split into two parts, with the first half coming to theaters this November 27. Audiences will have one year to anticipate the second part, which is set to be released on November 26, 2025.
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Sarah El-Mahmoud
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Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.
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