Do Idina Menzel or Kristin Chenoweth appear in the Wicked movie?

Of course, their lead roles have now gone to Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande respectively – with both stars winning significant praise for their turns in reviews – but it's long been rumoured that director Jon M Chu might bring them into the fold for a cameo appearance.

With the film now out in UK cinemas, we now know the answer as to whether Menzel and Chenoweth are back – read on for everything you need to know, but be warned of minor spoilers for Wicked.

Do Idina Menzel or Kristin Chenoweth appear in the Wicked movie?

Yes! Both Menzel and Chenoweth appear during the musical number One Short Day, after Elphaba and Glinda arrive in the Emerald City, with the pair getting plenty of chance to show off their incredible singing chops.

Indeed, the pair sing alongside Erivo and Grande during the extended cameo, a moment which is sure to go down extremely well with fans, with composer Stephen Schwartz having penned some new lyrics just for that duo.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, director Jon M Chu explained how it was "really fun" to include that moment, and that he "always knew we wanted to include them if they were willing to come".

He added that their DNA "is all over this movie", but the hard thing was finding the right place to include them, with several ideas floated that didn't feel "complete".

"Everything felt like they're at the top of their games now, and so when Stephen Schwartz and I discussed maybe they were in that part of Wizomania, it all came together because Schwartz just wrote this piece for them," he explained.

With it decided that they would appear in that moment, the next obstacle was getting them to the set without giving away the secret – something which threw up its own challenges.

"They came out for one night," Chu recalled. "We had to sneak him into London and it was raining that night, and it's not supposed to be raining, so we were under this giant canopy.

"But it was, in a weird way, a very healing time to have all the women together, to have the originals, to have Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman there, and to have David Stone and Marc Platt.

"They walked around, I watched them look and be like, 'Wow, look what we created.' And I really wanted to tell them, personally, in front of everybody, that we wanted to make this movie as love letter to them, so that they could experience Wicked as clean as possible, in a way that we first experienced Wicked, to feel those feelings and to see their characters reflected back in a new way."

Erivo and Grande had previously expressed their appreciation of the support they had received from the pair, with the former telling Entertainment Tonight: "It means the world to us."

She continued: "It's just been really wonderful to be able to get the nod of approval from the architects of this piece, you know. They're wonderful people and they've been so supportive."

Meanwhile, Grande said that it was "an out of body experience," and added: "This whole film is really a love letter to the stage production and our love letter to Broadway."

All this means that the already star-studded cast – which also includes Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh – gets even more impressive.

Wicked: Part One is now showing in UK cinemas.

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