Long-time fans and anticipating new fans of Wicked know that the main premise of the film, previously a book and a Broadway musical, revolves around two young witches who become sister-like best friends.
Elphaba, who will later become the Wicked Witch of the West, is at first outcast and laughed at for her green skin when she begins attending a new school, and she's surprisingly befriended by the powerful and beautiful Glinda, who will become Glinda the Good.
Glinda attempts to teach her new friend many things on their way to forging incredibly different paths, one of which is about Elphaba's ability to become popular and all of the wonderful things that come along with being popular.
¸But no matter how magical of a marketing team a movie might have, there are bound to be some typos and little mistakes along the way, just hopefully not with one of the film's most well-known, or "popular," songs.
While promoting the film, Wicked's marketing team shared a clip of Ariana Grande, who performs as Glinda, singing one of her lead numbers, "Popular," but there's a serious typo in the text overlay lyrics.
"Popular! You're gonna be popular."
"I'll teach you the proper poise when you talk to boys, little ways to flirt and flounce."
But Grande was quick to step into the comments and create the error:
"It's 'ploys'! I love you, Wicked Movie [team]."
@wickedmovie/Instagram
You can see the clip here:
Other performers who have portrayed Glinda or were close to the character also agreed with Grande about the lyrics.
@wickedmovie/Instagram
@wickedmovie/Instagram
Though this was a flub on the marketing team's part, fans still voiced their excitement for the project.
@wickedmovie/Instagram
@wickedmovie/Instagram
@wickedmovie/Instagram
@wickedmovie/Instagram
@wickedmovie/Instagram
@wickedmovie/Instagram
@wickedmovie/Instagram
@wickedmovie/Instagram
It's understandable how the mistake came to be. On the one hand, "poise" would make sense, especially given Glinda's character, who is all about poise, presentation, and social etiquette.
But the actual word choice, "ploys," implies the amusement of talking to boys, as well as the potential cunning plan behind talking to them.
Grande has mentioned in interview after interview that she does not believe that there is such a thing as "just a good witch" or "just a bad witch," and that each witch is a little of both, and this could be a great example of that, demonstrated in the "ploys" that Glinda might draft to get boys to like her and Elphaba.
At least Ariana Grande didn't go out of her way to burst the team's bubble.
@lpeterp/Bluesky
@FPWellman/X
@bobsbeatgmail.com5/Threads
