Most recently, it was announced that Jon M. Chu, who is coming off of his upcoming film adaptation of the 2008 Tony-winning musical, In the Heights, has taken over as director of Universal's long-awaited film adaptation of the Broadway smash, Wicked. He replaces Stephen Daldry, who had previously departed back in October of last year due to the studio wanting to mount it more quickly than he was comfortable moving. In fact, when Chu posted the announcement on his Twitter feed, he asked his followers "So... Twitterverse, who should we cast?". I've already thrown in other suggestions for the starring roles of Elphaba and Glinda, so now, I'm going give a quartet of ideas for Fiyero, the Winkie Prince who is the love interest of both female leads. On Broadway, that role was originated by future two-time Tony-winning actor Norbert Leo Butz.
Now on with my suggestions...
Now on with my suggestions...
Before coming on the scene with his breakout role as Eggsy in the 2015 action spy comedy film, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Taron Egerton started out acting as a teenager, where he performed in local productions at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre in England. There, he played The Artful Dodger in Oliver! and Lefou in Beauty & the Beast. In 2012, Taron graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, earning a B.A. in acting. In 2019, he got to show off his singing and dancing skills when he portrayed Elton John in the biographical movie musical, Rocketman. His performance earned him rave reviews, a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture-Comedy/Musical, as well as Best Actor nominations from SAG and BAFTA. Taron's current project is a biographical film for Apple TV+ titled Tetris, where he's playing entrepreneur Henk Rogers. If you ask me, I think he should be at the top of every casting wish list of the creative team for Fiyero.
Long before he became known as The Flash in the Arrowverse television franchise on The CW, Grant Gustin attended the BFA Music Theater Program at Elon University in North Carolina for two years. Although he ended up leaving to play Baby John in a national touring production of West Side Story (which was based on the 2009 Broadway revival directed by Arthur Laurents) for its first year from September 30th, 2010 through September 23rd, 2011. Immediately after his final performance in that, Grant then went on to show off his singing and dancing skills to a wider audience with his recurring role as Sebastian Smythe on Glee from seasons 3-5. Although his current TV series, The Flash, is still on the air as it was just renewed for an eighth season. So there is the question of if further production on that show could interfere with Wicked if production on that film ends up taking place around the same time. After all, Universal is reportedly hoping to begin production on the movie later this year. But if The Flash isn't filming then, maybe Grant should consider throwing his hat in the ring for Fiyero. It would mark his first major movie role.
Before introducing himself to general audiences as Zach Florrick on the CBS drama series, The Good Wife, Graham Phillips performed in quite a few professional stage productions as a child. His credits included the Lynn Ahrens/Alan Menken musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol (with Jim Dale) at Madison Square Garden, The Ten Commandments: The Musical (with Val Kilmer) at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, The Little Prince at the New York City Opera, and An American Tragedy at the Metropolitan Opera. In 2008, Graham made his Broadway debut in the starring role of Evan Goldman in Jason Robert Brown, Dan Elish, & Robert Horn's short-lived musical, 13. Though in 2019, he returned to his musical theater roots when he participated in ABC's hybrid television special of Disney's The Little Mermaid, where he played Prince Eric in the live musical performances. Not to mention that I've heard Graham got to play Tony in workshops for Steven Spielberg's West Side Story reboot, and he thought he was gonna get the part in the film, but Ansel Elgort was cast instead (although given an accusation the latter actor received of rape last summer, I wonder if Spielberg will end up reshooting a lot of the movie with the former actor taking over). With that being said, maybe Graham should consider throwing his hat in the ring for Fiyero as (similar to what I've already said about Grant Gustin) Wicked would mark his first major movie role.
Colton Ryan is a rising star who during his senior year at Baldwin Wallace University in 2016, made his Broadway debut understudying the roles of Connor Murphy, Jared Kleinman, and the title character in the original cast of Dear Evan Hansen. Since then, he went on to appear on screen with a recurring role on the seventh season of the Showtime drama series, Homeland, a small supporting role in the recently released Amazon Prime Video movie, Uncle Frank starring Paul Bettany, and as a series regular on the Apple TV+ series, Little Voice, executive produced by J.J. Abrams and Sara Bareilles. Before this global pandemic began, Colton was seen on Broadway as Gene Lain in the Conor McPherson-penned/directed Bob Dylan jukebox musical, Girl From the North Country, and will next be appearing as Conor Murphy in Universal's upcoming film adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen produced by Marc Platt (which will be released this September). I think the fact that he already has a supporting role in a soon-to-be released movie musical from the same producers behind every single stage production of Wicked since 2003 should at least keep him on their minds for Fiyero.
I'll be back with another one of these soon to discuss a different character. In the meantime, what do you think of these ideas? Do you have any of your own? For those interested in reading the previous blog posts I've done on this topic, you can find the link to all of them below.
WICKED Film
I'll be back with another one of these soon to discuss a different character. In the meantime, what do you think of these ideas? Do you have any of your own? For those interested in reading the previous blog posts I've done on this topic, you can find the link to all of them below.
WICKED Film