Jonathan Bailey and Ariana Grande filmed a “Wicked: For Good” kissing scene that ultimately proved to be a little too steamy.
“There was a scene between Fiyero and Glinda that we cut in which they kissed; it was romantic and beautiful, but a little too passionate,” the movie’s co-writer Dana Fox recently told Deadline.
In the sweeping musical, Grande’s character, Galinda (who becomes “Good Witch” Glinda), is betrothed to Bailey’s character, Prince Fiyero — who ultimately betrays her for Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba (who becomes the “Wicked Witch of the West”).
“Seeing that made it too hard to watch him make the choice he makes to be with Elphaba, and made it too hard to make it OK that Elphaba ran off with him,” Fox continued.
“It was too real that he and Glinda were actually feeling something together,” Fox said, adding that while Fiyero “really did love” Glinda, he “likes her in a different way.”
“But this scene was too romantic, so it was like, ‘Oh, we can’t know that because then our brains will explode when he doesn’t choose her in the end. And then we’ll hate Elphaba, Glinda and Fiyero.’”
“So, I think it was a good cut because it was too adorable that you simply couldn’t handle it.”
Fox shared that there are no regrets when it comes to “Wicked: For Good” footage left on the cutting room floor.
“I don’t think there’s anything that I wish we hadn’t cut because everything we cut, I felt we cut for exactly the right reasons,” she said.
Reps for Grande and Bailey did not immediately return Page Six’s requests for comment.
Fox co-wrote the movie — the sequel to last year’s “Wicked” — with Winnie Holzman. The epic two-part film was helmed by Jon. M. Chu.
Despite the onscreen dynamic between Erivo, 38, and Grande, 32, the pair have proven to be famously steadfast friends off-screen — with Erivo jumping in to protect Grande after a crazed fan rushed Grande during the Singapore red carpet premiere earlier this month.
“Cynthia is just an absolute brilliant gift of a human being,” Grande said during a December 2024 episode of Variety’s Actors on Actors.
In an Elle interview published last November, Erivo returned the sentiment, telling Elle at the time that she “gained a sister” in Grande and that the pals “speak almost every day.”
