Ariana Grande reuniting with “Wicked” director Jon M. Chu on Dr. Seuss movie

July 15, 20254 Mins Read

Key points

Ariana Grande has been tapped to voice a character in an animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Wicked filmmaker Jon M. Chu will direct the movie alongside Abominable director Jill Culton.
Josh Gad will also play a role in the film.

Ariana Grande‘s next musical will be a Seussical.

The “Into You” singer is set to reunite with Wicked director Jon M. Chu on another movie musical: an animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, Entertainment Weekly has learned.

“I love this book, i love this script, i love the beautiful world of @drseuss, i love this incredible group of creative human beings,” Grande wrote in an Instagram story. “I am so thrilled to be a part of this one.”

The Warner Bros. film will also star Josh Gad, who has previously leant his voice to two Frozen movies, two Angry Birds movies, A Dog’s Purpose, Marmaduke, and three seasons of Central Park. Jill Culton, who made her directorial debut with 2019’s Abominable after working as a story artist on films like Toy Story and Shrek, will direct alongside Chu.

The film’s original songs will be written by EGOT-winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who earned acclaim for penning songs for The Greatest Showman and Dear Evan Hansen as well as lyrics for La La Land.

Oh, the Places You Go! will Warner Bros. Pictures Animation’s second Dr. Seuss adaptation after 2026’s The Cat in the Hat starring Bill Hader. The film will be produced by J.J. Abrams and Gregg Taylor of Bad Robot.

Josh Gad/Instagram Ariana Grande and Josh Gad in the studio for 'Oh, the Places You'll Go!' — Josh Gad/Instagram

Ariana Grande and Josh Gad in the studio for ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go!’

Other Seuss adaptations have dominated the box office in the past, including the live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Illumination’s animated takes on The Lorax and The Grinch. Those films, however, are based on Seuss’ more narratively-oriented picture books, whereas Oh, the Places You’ll Go! — which was the writer’s final project released in his lifetime — is a much more abstract poem of a book, without particularly defined characters or specific story beats.

That means that the Oh, the Places movie should have creative space to essentially build characters and plot from the ground up, as the only essential elements from Seuss’ book are the mysterious “Waiting Place” and the author’s dazzling illustrative style.

Following the smashing success of last year’s Wicked, Grande will reprise her Oscar-nominated role of Glinda in Wicked: For Good. Directed by Chu, the film is the second half of the Wizard of Oz prequel musical and is set to release on Nov. 21.

Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures Ariana Grande as Glinda in 'Wicked' — Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

Ariana Grande as Glinda in ‘Wicked’

After finishing her stay in Oz, Grande will act opposite Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro in a fourth Meet the Parents comedy, which will hit theaters in November 2026.

Chu has a massive slate of film projects lined up after Wicked: For Good, and it’s not immediately clear if any of his potential upcoming movies will be released before Oh, the Places You’ll Go! The In the Heights filmmaker is attached to helm a Britney Spears biopic for Universal; a Jesus Christ Superstar adaptation for Amazon; an art-heist movie based on a true story for Warner Bros.; an adaptation of the video game Split Fiction starring Sydney Sweeney; another film for Warner Bros. based on Mattel’s Hot Wheels toy line; and possibly a Play-Doh animated movie for eOne and Hasbro. He’s also set to direct a stage musical adaptation of his 2018 rom-com Crazy Rich Asians on Broadway.