“It’s a Different Film”: ‘Wicked’ Composer Reacts to Oscar Nomination and Spills the Tea on the Musical’s Sequel [Exclusive]

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Wicked

As the devastation of the Palisades and Eaton fires continues to rock Los Angeles to its core, and other blazes pop up around the Southern Californian city, residents continue to stay on high alert. Evacuations have come with the wind’s sudden change of direction, so staying vigilant is something very familiar to those who call the City of Angels home. Shaken out of bed on Thursday morning was Grammy-nominated film composer, John Powell, but this time, it wasn’t a city-wide evacuation alert. Instead, it was a glimmer of hope — some terrific news from Wicked director Jon M. Chu telling him that he had been nominated for Best Original Score at the upcoming 97th Academy Awards.

Chatting with Collider’s Meredith Loftus following the big announcement, Powell revealed the startling moment that woke him up on Thursday morning, recounting,

“I was telling somebody, I got woken up, the phone went this morning, and right at the moment, we’re all very nervous because everybody's thinking it's an evacuation. I've been evacuated since the first Palisades fire. I almost had to move from another place in Santa Monica that was very close to the edge of it, and so everybody's kind of nervous. I thought they'd move the nominations to next week, so I wasn't quite expecting it. So, it was a nice way of waking up once you realize that it doesn't involve fire.”

Referring to Wicked’s helmer, Chu as “the kindest man,” Powell went on to describe his early-morning wake-up call, sharing, “Jon Chu FaceTimed me, as well, because he's a get-up-in-the-morning kind of guy. So he FaceTimed me, and I was still in bed in the dark with poodles and everything. I’m glad he couldn't see me… He's got more energy than anybody else I know. So, yeah, he was there. I think he was having a watch party… He’s wonderful. He’s absolutely wonderful.”

A Big Day for Musical Theater Fans

There was never any doubt that Wicked would become one of the biggest films of the year. Those of us who have been following the story of what happened before Dorothy arrived in Oz since its Broadway debut back in 2003, knew that audiences would not only flock to the cinema for Chu’s adaptation but fall in love with the story — whether they loved musicals or not. Raking in 10 total nominations, including nods to its leading ladies, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, the title was one of the most mentioned names at this year’s ceremony — something that Powell thinks is absolutely “wonderful.”

As for his hand in the project, the ear behind movie scores like Face/Off and the Bourne series worked alongside the musical’s composer, Stephen Schwartz, serving as the film’s composer and conductor. Reminiscing on his early days with the title, Powell said, “I mean, you try and get the job, then, if they want you, you sign on, and then you hope that the film's going to turn out the way you suspect.”

Breaking all expectations, Powell said he knew they had a hit on their hands after he watched an early draft back in November 2023:

“The very first time I saw it would have been, like, a year ago in early November, and I saw it without music other than the songs, and I didn't know the musical. I found it very, very affecting even like that, with nothing. So, I always felt it was a wonderful movie, a wonderful story with incredible performances by the two leads, as well. I always thought it was good, but you never know.”

Continuing to defy gravity at the international box office, it’s more than clear that fans are eager to see what happens when the second half of the story comes out next year in Wicked: For Good. And, while all the love from fans has been overwhelming, Powell notes that receiving such high kudos from his peers is a next-level feeling,

“So the fact that the audiences loved it… Then obviously, it's wonderful because in this particular case, for me, as in many of the branches, it's your peers. It's people I know and people I don't know but who were doing the same job as me, so they have very, very specific opinions of what a good job is, and the fact that it's there means a lot.”

A Full Circle Moment

When it comes to his Oscar nod for Wicked, this certainly isn’t Powell’s first rodeo. The composer was previously up for the same award back in 2011 for his work behind DreamWorks’ animated feature, How to Train Your Dragon. Now, more than a decade later, Powell is back in the saddle as a dragon trainer, composing the score for the movie’s live-action makeover, a moment that he sees as “circular,” adding,

“It's very weird because I'm working on the new version of How to Train Your Dragon right now, which is the last nomination. So, it's all very circular, apparently. But it's great. It's very weird.”

As he works tirelessly between Wicked: For Good and the live-action How to Train Your Dragon feature, Powell has big hopes for the latter, specifically for those who have never seen the original animated versions before, adding,

“Well, between the first Dragons and then this Dragons, there's been a lot of other scores, including a few other Dragons films, but I've never done a sequel so quickly as Wicked, and then Wicked: For Good. There's only one thing in between that, and that's Dragons, but it's wonderful to revisit it. It's the same director, Dean [DeBlois], who I adore and is quite a brilliant storyteller. I'm hoping that all those people who never saw the animated film will come across this story and enjoy it as much as everybody who has seen the animated film and everyone who likes the animated film who has seen it will appreciate this expanded version of the same story.”

Breaking down the difference between what it’s been like to shift gears from the vibrant world of animation to the fantastical world of live-action and finding a unique yet similar voice for both, Powell said,

“A lot of the music is the same, but it has to work in a slightly different way sometimes — some very different ways, sometimes. Live-action is a play. Over the years, people always ask, “What's the difference between doing animation and live-action?” I never really quite knew, but I really am having to figure that out right now because the same stuff can work exactly the same in a very similar scene, but something has to change for it to connect in a slightly different way because it's live-action. There's all these really subtle things that I'm having to do, and some not subtle things. So, it's good to revisit.”

‘Wicked: For Good’ Will Be a “Different Film”

While we won’t spoil what happens in the second part of the story for you here, it would be easy to find out. The book on which the musical is based, Gregory Maguire’s novel of the same name, has been out for 30 years, while Schwartz’s Broadway adaptation has been part of the Great White Way’s lineup for more than two decades. But, for now, we’ll just say that the second half is a lot darker than the first. This is something that Powell has taken into account as he notates the score for the sequel, understanding that there’s a lot going into hitting the right note with audiences.

“As far as the next Wicked one, I have to just get through this one first. I'm exhausted, so as soon as I've got through that, I'll regroup, and then we'll look at that. It's weird doing the second film so quickly. I mean, the question is, did we do it right on the first one, and are we going to do it the same? What should we change? How should we do it differently? Should we do it at all differently? Because before we started the first film, we had no idea how to do it. I mean, that's the truth of it, is that you're kind of making it up as you go along. It's a very difficult film to do. It hopefully doesn't sound like that, but it had to be searched out. Every aspect of trying to make that thing work had to be searched out. So, do I now know how to do the next one? I'm going to have to assume I know something, but I probably don't know everything. We're going to have to do the same thing, I think — it's a different film.”

Wicked is now playing in theaters.