Cynthia Erivo Shares Her Favorite ‘Wicked’ Deleted Scenes She Wishes Made the Final Cut
While “Wicked” is still defying gravity in theaters, the film has also been released on premium video on demand, and with it fans have been discovering some deleted scenes they wish could’ve added to the whimsy and magic of the film.
Turns out Cynthia Erivo has a few of her favorite scenes on the cutting room floor as well. IndieWire spoke with the “Wicked” star on the red carpet for the National Board of Review, where “Wicked” won Best Film from the awards body.
One of her favorites involves a scene at the train station in which Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) and Galinda (Ariana Grande) come to Elphaba’s (Erivo) side as her father is seeing her off to the Emerald City to visit the wizard, dismissively saying he hopes Elphaba makes a good impression.
“They jump to her defense, and it feels like a little girl-army,” Erivo said. “That makes me very happy. I wish that was in.”
One of her other favorites is a deleted scene between Elphaba and Boq (Ethan Slater), also at the train station, in which the two are discussing their feelings for Nessarose and Fiyero, a scene she said “is really cool,” but “alas.” Grande shares her affinity for that scene and recently said on another red carpet that a moment in which Boq says “Sorry, I misunderstood, I thought we were being honest” was the best line in the whole movie.
Finally, Erivo said she’s also a fan of the deleted scene inside the Oz forest between Elphaba and Fiyero, in which she shows Fiyero how to properly hold the lion cub before setting it free.
It’s incredible to think there are even more scenes that didn’t make the film considering “Wicked” is almost as long as the stage musical on which it’s based, even though it only covers Act I. We’ll see what else director Jon M. Chu saved from Act II with 2025’s upcoming “Wicked: For Good.”
Jonathan Bailey, who plays Fiyero in “Wicked,” recently teased what he said was a “tonal shift” between the two films.
“I think we understand the world and how it works [now],” he explained. “I’m really excited for the tonal shift. The world gets heavier and more complicated and there’s just that pumping sense of hope and joy and resilience and all the things that we love about Elphaba’s journey that I can’t wait for.”
In between then and all the awards shows Erivo seems to be attending nightly, she says she’s decompressing by, well, keeping busy with other projects.
“Work. Working! I’m going back to work,” she said with a laugh on the red carpet.
