Endless merch, high-profile appearances and a trail of pink and green

Before there was a cast, there was a press tour.

Promotion for the film adaptation of the musical Wicked started even before Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were announced as Glinda and Elphaba.

For almost two decades, the idea of an onscreen production of the famed Broadway show, which debuted in October 2003, was shopped around Hollywood. At one point, Salma Hayek’s production company was teaming up with ABC, who’d initially bought the rights from Gregory Maguire, who wrote Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the book on which the Broadway show is based.

While that never came to fruition, the project began to take shape after Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu was named the film’s director and the lead roles went to Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. With the film officially a go, fervent fans waited with bated breath for any updates about the movie from its stars.

As the film’s theatrical release on Nov. 22 fast approaches, the marketing team is now hard at work pushing a Barbie-level amount of collaborations with brands like Stanley (for cups that had people nearly brawling in a Target), Lego and Mattel. Starbucks announced two drinks inspired by the film’s two protagonists.

The promotional tour for this movie feels like a marathon, with the lead actresses making appearances at major cultural events together or with their co-stars after having wrapped up filming parts one and two of the movie in January.

Since then, fans have spotted Grande and Erivo together at the Super Bowl, the Met Gala and the Olympics, among other events.

Grande’s fans know that she’s mentioned wanting to play Glinda for over a decade. During a June appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the host shared a 2011 tweet from Grande, in which she said she’d love to play Glinda, calling it a “dream role.” Erivo, a Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress, is well-known in the theater community after gaining critical acclaim for her role as Celie in the 2015 revival of The Color Purple.

While it’s not uncommon for stars to attend events to drum up interest, the duo is more often than not wearing pink and green to pay homage to the characters they are bringing to the screen. More recently, a long press tour for blockbuster movies attempting to emulate the runaway success of the Barbie movie last year is becoming more commonplace.

For theater fans who have waited years for this movie to come out, watching Grande and Erivo promote this movie is more than welcome. Here are all the times the two witches appeared and changed us for good.

November 2021: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are cast

In November 2021, Grande and Erivo took to their Instagram accounts to announce their casting in Wicked. Their posts captured their reactions, which warmed the hearts of theater lovers everywhere.

April 2023: A work-in-progress exclusive 1st look at CinemaCon

A select group got the chance to see more than five minutes of the film, featuring two of the most popular songs from the show, “Popular” and “Defying Gravity.”

The cast, which includes Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum, attended the conference as well. Snippets of Erivo’s rendition leaked online and further built hype for the movie.

February 2024: Super Bowl LVIII appearance, 1st trailer

Erivo and Grande attended the matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas. They wore pink and green jerseys with their characters’ names on the backs. They arrived together and were spotted sitting together and chatting during the game.

The first trailer for the movie premiered during the game. Given that this year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched program in TV history, if people didn’t know about the movie before, it’s likely they do now.

The excitement for the film quickly grew but then was overshadowed by Beyoncé teasing a new album in a Verizon commercial and releasing two singles that same night.

March 2024: Presenting at the 2024 Academy Awards

The two witches graced the Oscars stage in, of course, green and pink, to present the awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Score. Grande wore a strapless Giambattista Valli haute couture gown, while Erivo was dressed in a dark green Louis Vuitton ruffled number.

May 2024: Walking the Met Gala carpet, performing a duet

The Wicked stars stepped out for a glamorous evening at the 2024 Met Gala and spotted each other on the carpet. This time, Erivo was wearing a black Thom Browne gown adorned with pink flowers, and Grande wore an iridescent corseted Loewe gown. They answered questions together and held hands on the red carpet.

Grande was expected to perform that evening, but the pair was mum as to whether they’d be sharing the mic. The two did eventually get up onstage, singing Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey’s “When You Believe.” There weren’t any professional videos released from the night, but videos of the rendition leaked online.

Photos showed they were wearing each other’s designated color during the performance as well.

July 2024: The 2024 Summer Olympics

Since these two are no strangers to sporting events, why not attend one on the world stage?

The pair walked arm in arm during the opening ceremony, which took place in front of the Eiffel Tower. They wore their own colors this time around and answered questions from the press, telling reporters who they were most excited to see perform.

Chu later joined the pair for the qualifying rounds of the women’s gymnastics event.

October 2024: Grande hosts SNL, cast attends Academy Museum Gala

Grande dusted off her comedic acting chops to host the Oct. 12 episode of Saturday Night Live with Stevie Nicks as the musical guest.

There wasn’t a shortage of singing on the host’s part, though. Grande broke out into song during her monologue and in some of the sketches she performed throughout the night.

One sketch, “Bridesmaids Speech,” is now finding legs on TikTok and has gone viral since it first aired.

One week later, Grande stepped out with Erivo, Chu, and Goldblum at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Gala on Oct. 19 in Los Angeles.

The group took photos together and spoke to the press about how excited they were for the movie to hit theaters.

With less than one month until the movie hits theaters, fans should expect Grande and Erivo to leave a trail of pink and green in their wake, all the way to the cinema.

Wicked is in theaters Nov. 22.