— November 8, 2021
Usually we see fans petitioning studios to put their preferred star into a leading role in a movie, however the announcement that Wicked is finally moving forward with production has seen a petition made to Universal to keep a certain actor out of the movie. A fan-led call to arms has amassed over 41,000 signatures at time of writing demanding that Cats star James Corden not be in the running for any role in the upcoming adaptation of the popular Broadway musical, which tells the story of the Witches of Oz before Dorothy arrived on the back of a hurricane.
Fans have been waiting to see a big screen adaptation of Wicked since it first went into development all the way back in 2004, a year after the musical made its Broadway debut with Idina Menzel and Christine Chenoweth in the lead roles of Elphaba and Glinda respectively. In the last week it has been announced that these roles will be taken over by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, which has led to fans pondering who else will be cast in the musical fantasy and more importantly who they definitely don’t want to see added to the roster of stars. Top of that particular list is the more-Marmite-than-Marmite James Corden.
A petition created on Change.Org comes with the very simple and precise goal of ensuring that the British comedian and late night host never gets to see the Wizard and is sent down the wrong path. Created by Mikel Miller, the petition delivers one of the shortest and most defined mission statements ever seen on the site, reading, “James Corden in no way shape or form should be in or near the production of Wicked the movie. That’s pretty much it.”
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While James Corden seemed to have annoyed most of the British population a long while ago, he became a regular part of American late night television when he took over as host of The Late Late Show in 2015. However a recent run of musical movie appearances, in the now infamously panned big screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical Cats, The Prom and Amazon Prime’s Camila Cabello starring Cinderella, have led people to believe that Corden has become some kind of Jonah to any musical production he comes into contact with. And that doesn’t just include musical films.
Corden was roasted, and continues to be, for leading a musical flashmob which stopped traffic in order to promote Cinderella, which saw many commenting on the video of his antics with the general suggestion that the traffic shouldn’t have stopped. With a prolific list of appearances on TV and in movies, it is hard to avoid seeing Corden’s face turn up somewhere at any given moment, and that only seems to fuel the wishes of many that he would just disappear for a while. Whether Universal pick up on this absolute loathing for the chat show host and ditch any plans to include him in Wicked – if indeed any such plans do exist in the mind of any of the casting directors – is something we will have to wait to find out. However, it is safe to say that if Corden is seen anywhere near the production, there will probably be more than an angry mob of Munchkins waiting for him outside. You can sign the petition yourself at Change.Org.
Over Forty-Thousand Wicked Fans Sign Petition to Keep James Corden Out of the Movie
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