We were this close to seeing shirtless Jonathan Bailey on the big screen.
Apparently, both Bailey and Ethan Slater had a shirtless scene in Wicked, but it didn’t make the final cut of the movie. The devastating news comes courtesy of fellow Wicked star Bowen Yang, who told the story on a new episode of the podcast Just Trish, hosted by Trisha Paytas.
“It’s Boq and Fiyero — Jonathan Bailey and Ethan Slater — ripping their shirts off,” Yang said of the scene. “You were supposed to see Jonathan Bailey in his full shirtless glory, flexing, and then Boq, in the story of the movie, being insecure and wanting to look hot too, like, take his shirt off. But then it’s like, ‘Oh, wait, Ethan’s got a great body.’”
The story came up when Yang said that Slater is “jacked under that shirt,” and Paytas questioned why Yang would know that.
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“Was he shirtless on set?” she asked, leading Yang to tell the story of the deleted scene, which was supposed to come after the song “Popular” and before the scene where Elphaba makes her class fall asleep with magical poppies.
“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 in the fields hanging out,” Yang explained. “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 just laughing, having a great time.”
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Fans are torn on the moment’s exclusion from the final cut of the film. On one hand, seeing a heartthrob like Bailey rip his shirt off (and getting to see Slater’s sleeper build to boot) would be a welcome addition to any movie. On the other, a random shirtless scene would stick out like a sore thumb in the middle of Wicked.
Maybe we’ll get the moment in a director’s cut — or maybe it will see the light of day in a flashback in Wicked: Part Two. Either way, we’re incredibly seated. Chop chop, Jon Chu!
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