There has been a petition going around amongst the musical, Wicked’s fans against signing James Corden as one of the cast in the upcoming movie adaptation. The petition, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is on Change.org and is addressed directly to Universal. Fans have been requesting producers to not cast James Corden in the respective movie.
“James Corden in no way shape or form should be in or near the production of Wicked the movie… that’s pretty much it,” the petition states, via The Hollywood Reporter. The petition has reportedly already collected 21,000 signatures.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have recently joined the cast as Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, in the film. When Corden became a hot topic for the same reason, fans expressed their displeasure with the choice to put him in any of the parts. Fans have been unhappy with his past performances in other musicals like Cats, The Prom and Into The Woods. Corden has also been chastised for his promotional work for Camila Cabello’s Cinderella, in which he disguised up as a rat and made odd thrusting gestures with his hips while commuters in LA traffic were unaware.
The musical Wicked premiered on Broadway in 2003, and a film adaptation has been in development since 2004. According to reports, the film will be directed by Jon M. Chu, who also helmed In the Heights and Crazy Rich Asians, and will begin filming in the United Kingdom in June 2022.
Talking about the musical Wicked, Ariana Grande has clearly been overjoyed with her casting, which she expressed on her Instagram stories. She will be playing the role of Glinda, which was played by Kristin Chenoweth on Broadway alongside Idina Menzel’s Elphaba.
