Jon M. Chu spills the tea on the biggest surprise in 'Wicked'

Jon M. Chu, the director of Wicked, recently opened up about “surprise” cameos in the movie.

For the unversed, the filmmakers had just one day to shoot the cameos for the “One Short Day” scene in Wicked.

In the scene, Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) go to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum).

While there, they watch a stage show about the history of Oz, and during this, original Broadway cast members Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, who played Glinda and Elphaba, appear to guide the audience through the story of the city.

Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Chu took into account the appearance of the original cast, saying, “There was no world where we wouldn’t invite them to come be a part of this. The question for us was, how, and how much are they willing to do in it, and how much can the story itself handle it? Because they’re such iconic people and especially to these roles.”

The director added, “It was like a mania. [We said], ‘Let’s make them the biggest stars of Oz. Let’s make them this iconic legends of Oz on the stage show, and let them present the history of Oz.”

“They would be the wise women of Oz.’ It just seemed to make sense. And [composer] Steven Schwartz — it might have actually come from him from my memory — said, ‘I know exactly how to do it’ because we needed some information about the story of the history of Oz, plus it would be them, so it would be more meaningful,” the 45-year-old filmmaker shared.

Notably, two other cameos appear in the scene, including Winnie Holzman as an Emerald City resident.

On the other hand, Stephen Schwartz also appears at the palace and exclaims, “The Wizard will see you now!”

It is noteworthy to mention that Wicked, which hit theatres on Friday, November 22, also includes Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Keala Settle as Miss Coddle Marissa Bode as Nessarose, and Bowen Yang as Pfannee.