Movies, Music, Theatre

Crazy Witch Asians: Why Constance Wu & Kimiko Glenn Should Star in a ‘Wicked’ Movie

Tonight, NBC will be airing a Halloween special celebrating the 15th anniversary of the smash Broadway musical, Wicked.

So I figured what better opportunity to revisit this thread I started over two years ago when I fancast a bunch of Asian Americans as characters from the musical? Now that we live in a post-Crazy Rich Asians world, a movie adaptation of Wicked starring an all-Asian American cast is not as far-fetched as it seemed when I started the #AAWicked tag in 2016. Hell, even though Universal Pictures has already tapped Stephen Daldry to direct, Jon M. Chu might be the best person to bring an Asian American Wicked adaptation to life. His next project is bringing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights to the big screen after all. Anyway, here’s who I’d cast in an all-Asian Wicked.

Constance Wu as Elphaba

Speaking of Jon M. Chu and Crazy Rich Asians, there’s no better choice to play Elphaba in a Wicked movie (all-Asian or not) than Rachel Chu herself, Constance Wu. Not only has she defied gravity to become a legit movie star, she’s also a straight up musical theater nerd. (Seriously, do yourself a favor and look up her YouTube channel.) Plus, as she’s shown time and again on Fresh Off the Boat, she can sing.

Kimiko Glenn as Glinda

Additionally, there’s no better option to play Elphaba’s frenemy Glinda than Orange is the Black star, Kimiko Glenn. (Orange is the new black, and you know black is this year’s pink.) Not only does Kimiko have the Broadway experience, playing Dawn in the Tony Award-winning musical Waitress (see below), but that role proves she can bring the same kind of twang to Glinda that Kristin Chenowith brought to the character when she originated it back in 2003.

The rest of the thread fancasts folks like Emmy Award Winner Darren Criss as love interest Fiyero and Lynn Chen and Goh Nakamura sorta reprising their Surrogate Valentine roles as Nessa and Boq, respectively.

And tune in to NBC tonight at 10pm for A Very Wicked Halloween. Who knows? Maybe if the right folks are listening, they’ll trust their instincts and give us Constance and Kimiko to co-lead the eventual Wicked movie. Together they’ll be the greatest them there’s ever been.