The movie adaptation of Wicked has had a history of its release date getting moved up and competing against other big movies. While Part 1 was originally to be released on Christmas Day, it got moved up to November 27th to avoid Avatar 3 competition. Now that Wicked Part 1 has been moved up further to November 22nd, it will be coinciding with Gladiator 2 which is bringing out some serious Barbenheimer vibes with its epic Wickediator poster.
It looks like Wicked was always going to be the next up-and-coming Barbenheimer mixing in with big movies. When the film adaptation of Wicked got pushed up to November 27th, it was going to double feature with Moana 2 which would have been…Woana? Now that Wicked Part 1 has a release date alongside Gladiator 2, it appears that Wickediator is born with an epic Twitter fan poster to commence the upcoming double feature occasion:
WICKEDIATOR https://t.co/jVC0HxcUWQ pic.twitter.com/Rv6UvFaykxJuly 1, 2024
It’s amazing how similar the two posters are to each other! We see opposite witches Elphaba and Galinda reaching out to each other on two corners of the poster. On the other two corners, there’s Ridley Scott’s sequel of Gladiator with Marcus Acacius drawing his sword at Lucius Verus. While these two movies are epics in their own right, we still see dark and light-toned movies falling on the same day which are ingredients to a Barbenheimer weekend. Other fans couldn’t help but share their reactions like this tweet pointing out the Barbenheimer coincidence:
History keeps repeating itself!!! #Wickediator 🫧⚔️ pic.twitter.com/Sgd9aoLrgKJuly 2, 2024
Barbenheimer was exactly what cinemas needed in order to stay afloat after the COVID-19 pandemic. The surprising same-day ticket sales at AMC were phenomenal with over 20,000 members of its AMC Stubs loyalty program wanting to see Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day. These double-feature screenings certainly helped these contrasting movies achieve big box office numbers with Oppenheimer scoring $976.1 million and Barbie surpassing the billion-dollar mark. With Barbenheimer being such a success, it’s only natural for studios to catch on and put two other contrasting movies together for the next double feature.
Another X user posted a photo comparing Gladiator 2 and Wicked with another popular franchise:
Wicked boyfriend Gladiator girlfriend pic.twitter.com/MAZz0pTgdUJuly 2, 2024
I can definitely see the similarities between the two Hunger Games characters and the November 22nd release movies. Peeta would be the sweet, light-toned Wicked to Katniss’s dark-toned, no-mercy Gladiator. But hey, the pair ended up being endgame by Mockingjay Part 2, so it’s possible the same could be said with Wickediator. This meme described what we all could be feeling on the double feature release date:
Wicked & Gladiator 2 coming out on the same day: pic.twitter.com/giSrm0aiN6July 1, 2024
November 22nd could very well be a day to remember if double features set in. We could be having audience members with green faces or blond wigs showing up in Gladiator attire! That’ll be a sight for sure. Anytime you put two things together that you wouldn’t think would be a good mix, it could end up being a memorable combo. This last X post shows that not everyone could be in the double feature mood on November 22nd:
why would i watch gladiator when i can watch this? #wickediator pic.twitter.com/xkgLjBSrltJuly 2, 2024
It’s true that Wicked Part 1 is going to have some epic magical fight scenes between Glinda and Elphaba. Maybe not at the same level of barbarism as Gladiator 2 is expected to have, of course. But, it seems like one thing the two movies will have in common is confrontation scenes with the clash of two opposing characters. It’s just a matter of completely different levels of intensity.
The new fan poster of Wickediator and all of the fun fan reactions show we’re on the verge of being set up for another Barbenheimer-like screening. After all, the Barbenheimer trend was created by the fans and became the phenomenon we didn’t know would work out so well. You can be part of the fun too, seeing the two 2024 movie releases of Wicked Part 1 and Gladiator 2 in theaters on November 22nd.