There’s some news worth roaring about concerning Wicked: For Good, as Colman Domingo (Rustin, The Running Man) joins the cast as the voice of the Cowardly Lion! The Oacar-nominated actor broke the news on Instagram by posting a video of an adroable stuffed lion alongside the caption “wickedmovie.” Oh, and don’t worry, folks. The lion is a stuffie, not an actual lion that’s been stuffed. Could you even imagine? Yikes! In the video, Domingo makes the stuffie dance before revealing his face to the camera. The video ends with Domingo winking at Wicked fans, saying, “See you in Oz!”
According to Wicked: For Good director Jon M. Chu, he got the idea to cast Colman Domingo as the voice of the Cowardly Lion during reshoots in March. He DMed Domingo to see if he’d be interested. Per Entertainment Weekly, since I’ve not seen Wicked, “the scaredy-cat previously appeared as a baby cub that Elphaba and Fiyero rescue from a ploy to begin rounding up talking animals in Oz and domesticate them before they begin speaking.”
“I was like, ‘It’s not a ton of lines, but maybe you have a little time. I know you’re busy. I’ll come to you,” Chu said of his messages. “He was like, ‘Why the f— not, let’s go!’ And then we went ahead and recorded the lines.”
At the time, Chu wanted to keep Domingo’s identity a secret, teasing to EW, “Man, wait until the red carpet when the actor who gave us the Cowardly Lion’s voice steps foot on it. It’ll be wild.”
Domingo’s adult Cowardly Lion will appear in the film alongside Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Toto, as the four characters become involved in an epic musical battle of wills between Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande).
According to Chu, Wicked: For Good will take an emotional toll on audiences, more so than the first film.
“If Part 1 is about choices, Part 2 is about consequences,” he revealed. “Choices are difficult to make, but when you do make those choices, sometimes the result isn’t what you expect it to be. It can be lonely, it can be hard.”
Chu added, “There’s a lot of soul searching in movie 2. They’re asking, ‘Is this the right decision that you made?’”
What do you think about Colman Domingo voicing the Cowardly Lion for Wicked: For Good? Let us know in the comments section below.
