‘Wicked’ Cut a Shirtless Jonathan Bailey–Ethan Slater Scene

Life is hurtless, when you’re shirtless.
Photo: Universal Pictures

Listen, Nessa, uh, Nessa, I’ve got something to confess: a reason why, well, why I asked Chu here tonight. Now I know it isn’t fair, but he’s in the director’s chair, and he should feel sorry for us, because he allegedly cut a montage from Wicked: Part One which would have featured Jonathan Bailey and Ethan Slater ripping their shirts off. You know, to show what good friends they are. Oh, Oz.

News of the deleted scene comes from a new episode of the Just Trish podcast, which saw host Trisha Paytas interviewing her mutual admirer and Wicked sixth-billed male lead Bowen Yang (behind Governor Thropp?! Really?!?) about the film. Like the scoop-getting investigative journalist she is, Paytas gets Yang to spill about a never-before-spoken-of cut scene of “Jonathan Bailey and Ethan Slater ripping their shirts off.”

“You were supposed to see Jonathan Bailey in his full shirtless glory, flexing, and then Boq being insecure and wanting to look hot too, like take his shirt off.” Yang explains. “But then it’s like, Oh, wait, Ethan’s got a great body.” They get on the subject because Yang lets Paytas know that Slater is “jacked under that shirt,” and Paytas wants to know how, exactly, Yang would have gathered such information. According to Yang, the moment was meant to take place between “Popular” and Dillamond getting dragged out of the classroom by the Oztapo. “Between those scenes, they shot a whole montage just to show the audience that these are all friends now: Fiyero, Galinda, Elphaba, Nessa, and Boq, the five of them running around, hanging out. The reason why Elphaba has all those poppies is because they cut a thing where they’re in a poppy field and they pick flowers and they’re laughing, having a great time.”

What in Oz would compel Jon M. Chu and his team to cut that scene? “I think it’s because it’s a two-hour-and-45-minute movie,” answers Yang.

“I think people would have loved a three-hour movie if that was included,” says Paytas, correctly. She also points out that one of the most widely used promotional stills from the film — of Galinda in pigtails with her head on Elphaba’s shoulder, with a field of poppies in the background — isn’t actually in the film, and it sounds like it comes from that montage. She thinks it will be used as a flashback in Wicked: Part Two, which gives me hope that they’ll just throw the whole montage in there, ideally during a dragged-out, 15-minute “For Good” sequence (like a sexy stream that meets a fit boulder halfway through the … wood.) Or, to keep their box office up, Universal could just release the Shirtless Cut. What’s five more minutes between Wicked fans? Give us something to hold space for.