Oct 19
Which 'Wicked' Character Is Sending Bowen Yang Bisexual Vibes?
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
In John M. Chu's upcoming film adaptation of "Wicked," there is a character who is sending Bowen Yang queer vibes. On the 400th episode of the podcast "Las Culturistas," Yang and his co-host Matt Rogers celebrated with a list of the 400 most iconic pop culture figures. Coming in at 336 is a character from "Wicked," Fiyero Tiggular – or, as Yang and Rogers label him, "Fiyeros played by gay men. Likely all Fiyeros."
In the film, Fiyero is played by out actor Jonathan Bailey. "I'm not going to spoil it. [Bailey] gives an unspoken bisexual energy to Fiyero in the movie. It's incredible," Yang told Rogers.
Yang might have more insight than most: He plays the character Pfannee – one of Galinda's posse at school. In both musical play and film, Fiyero is a hunky prince who first gets involved with Galinda, but then finds romance with Elphaba. And while he's involved with both leading women, Yang notes there's a serious queer aura to the character. He also suggested that his character and Fiyero "might have a moment" in the film, but didn't offer any details.
Yang qualified his comment about Fiyeros only being played by gay men. "We don't want to say all of them are gay," Yang says. "But Nick Adams..." "He's gay," Rogers replies. "No, I'm just saying I'm listing off Fiyeros," Yang says. "Jonathan Bailey is gay!" Rogers adds. In reality, most of the actors who have played the role have been straight, but amongst the gay actors have been Kyle Dean Massey, Ryan McCartan, Adam Lambert, Jeremy Taylor, and Sam Gravitte.
And they noted that Bailey's character poster has Fiyero "showing his ass," giving fans a tease of the kind of energy he's bringing to the role. "It's giving tush," says Rogers. "It's giving tushy."
As for his part in the film, Yang had said in an earlier podcast: "I'm playing a hater for the first time. He's not just any gay guy – Pfannee is a hater. This guy sucks! Frankly, he's racist. He sees a green person [Elphaba] and he goes, 'I'm gonna f***ing ruin that person's life,'" Yang said.
He also spoke about how he and director Jon M. Chu collaborated in depth on the characterization so that Pfannee would shine on screen, with Yang adding: "I think we arrived at something really interesting. I can't wait for you guys to see."
