How Wicked is creating a new dream for Americans

MUSICAL film Wicked was a huge hit in 2024, with a second instal- ment — Wicked For Good — set to premiere this November.

The project has a personal resonance for director Jon M Chu. “It’s a big responsibility. My parents came from Taiwan to America, so The Wizard of Oz — the American fairytale — was always a part of our lives. This was the American dream,” said Chu at Tuesday’s CannesLions’ Defying

Gravity: Reimagining Brand Narratives session.He noted that, currently, the Amer- ican dream is being questioned and that this is reflected in the two Wicked films: “Today, how does that American dream change and retain the optimism and the yearning for something brighter at the horizon?”

Wicked director Jon M Chu: “yearning for something brighter”

Actor Bowen Yang: “space for everything”

Actor Bowen Yang joined Chu on the panel and both talked about how inclusion and representation are at the heart of Wicked. “The strength of this film is that it holds space for everything — and that includes the people, the look and the tone,” Yang said.

Chu related this back to the confidence that he looked for when casting the films: “It’s confidence in who you are. Confidence is not that you believe you’re the best. That’s arrogance. It’s that you accept that you have all these flaws and despite that you still love yourself. You still have room for yourself.”

“To me, that’s what confidence is. It’s not that you know everything... All I wanted to do was to cast people who knew exactly who they were.”

The panel included VML chief creative officer Debbi Vandeven, who drew a parallel with the creative work of her company and its peers. “Craft is the most important thing we can do. If you want your message to stand out, it’s not always about putting massive messages out. It’s how are you going to connect with people?” she said.