Originally appeared on E! Online Oh, what a celebration Jon M. Chu is having today. The “Wicked” director was MIA from the film’s premiere in Los Angeles on Nov. 9, as his wife Kristin Hodge is preparing to give birth to their fifth baby. But, just because he wasn’t there physically at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, doesn’t mean Chu didn’t pop into the Land of Oz in spirit. Yes, the 45-year-old made sure to tap into the premiere’s livestream, dropping a few comments that inevitably became quite popular. “I’m pretending I’m there while my wife pushes,” he commented on the Instagram Live Nov. 9, adding when he got a mention on the red carpet, “I love a shoutout!! Hahaha this hospital thinks I’m crazy.” But he also made sure to keep fans up-to-date on his exciting activity, noting, “Shoutout to me in the cafeteriiiiaaaa!! Eating microwave pasta yo!!” From the beginning, Chu has been candid about how thrilled he was that the pieces fell into place — especially when he was able to cast Ariana Grande as Glinda, the Good Witch, and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. And the casting of Ariana in particular came as a surprise. “I sort of didn’t want to believe that she could do this,” he confessed to Vanity Fair in their November 2024 issue. “It seems almost too easy to say, ‘Oh, Ariana Grande.” But according to Chu, “Every time she came in, she was the most interesting person. You just couldn’t take your eyes away.” And as the 44-year-old reflected on the time he and the cast spent making the film, he’s thankful for how Grande, Erivo and everyone else involved gave it their all. “Everyone knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he shared with the Associated Press in September. “Once in a lifetime to make a movie of this scale, of this moment when cinema is being questioned of what place it has in our life.” He added, “We had to shoot the moon.” (E!, Universal Pictures, Fandango and this NBC station are part of the NBCUniversal Family).