Even Lin-Manuel Miranda wasn’t exempt from those vying for a part in Wicked.
According to the movie’s director Jon M. Chu, the famed composer and actor made “many calls” to him, pitching himself for a very specific (albeit small) role.
As Chu, 45, says in the commentary for Wicked‘s newly released digital edition, per Variety, Miranda — whom he previously worked with on 2021’s In the Heights — wanted to play the Munchkinland citizen who, at the beginning of the movie, asks Glinda (Ariana Grande) of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), “Is it true you were her friend?”
“I got many calls from Lin. He might have even tweeted about it,” recalled Chu, explaining that he said no as he thought a cameo from Miranda, 45, would be “too distracting.”
“Sorry, Lin!” he added, per Variety.
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Miranda did indeed tweet about wanting the role, which eventually went to actress Kirsty Anne Shaw, as seen in the final cut of the movie. (She’s credited as “Skeptical Munchkin” on IMDb.)
Sharing a New York Times article about the film treatment’s early stages, when Stephen Daldry was attached as director, Miranda wrote all the way back in June 2016, “WICKED MOVIE! FINALLY.”
He added in his post on X (formerly Twitter), “Dear Stephen Daldry: Can I play the guy who goes, ‘Is it true you were her FRIEND?!’ ”
Read a fan reply, “Is that the wicked equivalent of the loud hailer in Les Mis,” to which the Hamilton scribe replied simply, “YES.”
There are clearly no hard feelings between Chu and Miranda, though, as the two were recently snapped smiling together earlier this month at the National Board of Review Awards Gala in New York City, where Chu won best director for Wicked.
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Erivo, 38, and Grande, 31, bring to life the characters first made famous on Broadway in 2003, with Idina Menzel as the original Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as the original Glinda.
But Chu previously revealed in a chat with SFX Magazine that before Erivo and Grande were cast in the lead roles in the Wicked movie adaptation, he originally considered “no-namers.”
“I wanted to have a very clear slate,” he recalled in the November 2024 interview. “It’s a big enough property on its own, so we can discover two people. I was like, ‘We’re gonna find no-namers.’ ”
“But then we got calls from all these great actresses who wanted to audition and we saw everybody, and they were all really great,” Chu added. “Anyone could have done this role, except there were two people who were meant to do this role, for this particular movie at this particular time.”
Wicked is now available to buy or rent on demand.
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