Wicked Director Jon M. Chu Reveals His Favorite Bonus Scene

If Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo didn’t make you cry enough in Wicked, just wait for the deleted scenes. The movie will be available to purchase or rent on Dec. 31 on Digital, along with all its deleted moments. In an interview with Bustle, director Jon M. Chu revealed the most difficult scene he had to cut from the film, and it may require some tissues.

“The promise [scene] is a really hard one to cut, where Elphaba says, ‘I will never leave you behind again,’ because [Grande and Elphaba] are doing masterful work in that scene,” he tells Bustle. “You're seeing things in Glinda that you don't get to see in any other movie. Her insecurities, her real need to be friends and be there for Elphaba.”

The moment takes place in a classroom, right before Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) receives the invite to meet the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum), as Erivo’s Elphaba studies and Grande’s Glinda tries (and fails) to master her beginner’s wand. In an emotional moment, Glinda asks “Elphie” why Fiyero helped free the lion cub from their classroom days prior.

“I would’ve helped you, if you needed someone, could’ve picked me,” she sweetly tells her, leading Elphaba to give her reassurance and make a promise. “I’m sorry, it was a mistake. I won’t leave you behind again,” she declares.

Why Elphaba’s Promise Was Cut

According to Chu, the poignant scene removes the element of surprise for the audience when Elphaba asks Glinda to go with her in Oz to see the Wizard.

“The issue for us was that when Elphaba makes a promise to Glinda, it takes away the drama of waiting for the promise to actually happen,” he argues. “When you get to the train scene, if she already made that promise, Elphaba is a person of her word, so she's going to invite her. Without that, I think you don't quite know [her intentions].”

While devoted fans of the Broadway musical knew that Glinda would join Elphaba in Oz, Chu still wanted to make that invite a major moment for new viewers. “When [Elphaba] asks her, that is a promise, whether she says it or not,” he says. “She sees the letter that [Glinda] wrote her. She looks back and you can feel that she's never going to let this woman go again.”

Chu was also wary of the film’s runtime, which already runs two-and-a-half hours in its final cut. “We’ve been in the movie a while now, let's get to the Emerald City,” he quipped. “We had to always think about the trajectory of the movie itself. The movie was long. It still is long, and I tried to do my due diligence of getting it as thin as we could but knowing we needed those pieces.”