Time to Hold Space for Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande's Full Friendship Timeline

david stone, marc platt,  universal pictures presents a special cast and filmmakers screening of wicked, featuring the original  current broadway casts alongside the upcoming movie's cast  crew, at the dga theater in new york, new york
Deep-Diving Into Cynthia & Ariana's FriendshipKevin Mazur - Getty Images

Despite being busy taking in the lyrics to "Defying Gravity" and holding space for that, we found time to do a deep-dive on Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande's very sweet friendship—which largely consists of hyping each other up, tenderly holding fingers, and shedding tears during interviews. So how did these two get so close? For starters, Wicked took for-ev-er to film and this press tour has been 84 years, but lemme just go ahead and put things into a timeline.

November 2021

Cynthia and Ari are cast in Wicked! They promptly send each other cute notes and flowers.

These two then meet for the first time at Cynthia's house, and the rest is history. (History which we are about to go over in great detail.)

October 2022

Ari and Cynthia officially start preparing for their roles and getting into character as Glinda and Elphaba.

December 2022

Filming for Wicked begins in London!

March 2023

Ari and Cynthia are about halfway through filming (reminder: they were essentially making two movies at once between parts 1 and 2, so production was loooOoooOooOoOoong).

January 2024

Filming for Wicked concludes! (Note: the cast took a break from production due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes, which is why filming took longer than expected.)

February 11, 2024

Ari and Cynthia head to the Super Bowl in matching 'fits.

March 10, 2024

Then they present at the Oscars (in outfits we can all agree Elphaba and Glinda would enjoy).

96th annual academy awards show
Kevin Winter - Getty Images

May 6, 2024

Cynthia and Ariana casually perform at the 2024 Met Gala and give fans a taste of what's coming.

Also their red carpet pics are the cutest.

met gala
Kevin Mazur/MG24 - Getty Images

May 16, 2024

Ari drops a bunch of BTS pics from Wicked and I, personally, am flooded with jealousy and bitterness that I wasn't part of the production.

July 2024

The duo heads to the 2024 Paris Olympics. Consider the press tour soft-launched!

opening ceremony olympic games paris 2024 day 0
Matthew Stockman - Getty Images
artistic gymnastics olympic games paris 2024 day 2
Ezra Shaw - Getty Images

August 21, 2024

Ari and Cynthia refer to each other as "best friends" in this joint post.

September 3, 2024

Time for more cute BTS pics:

September 22, 2024

Cynthia and Ari celebrate the two month countdown to Wicked.

Annnnnd then the world's longest press tour begins!

October 19, 2024

These two reunite at the 2024 Academy Museum Gala and their outfits are on another level.

academy museum of motion pictures 4th annual gala in partnership with rolex
Emma McIntyre - Getty Images

October 28, 2024

Wicked screenings officially begin.

david stone, marc platt, universal pictures presents a special cast and filmmakers screening of wicked, featuring the original current broadway casts alongside the upcoming movie's cast crew, at the dga theater in new york, new york
Kevin Mazur - Getty Images

October 29, 2024

The pair hit up the WSJ Magazine Innovators Awards.

arrivals wsj magazine 2024 innovator awards
Dimitrios Kambouris - Getty Images

November 3, 2024

It's finally here! The OFFICIAL premiere of Wicked! Specifically, in Australia.

wicked
Don Arnold - Getty Images

November 8, 2024

Cynthia chats about her friendship with Ari, saying, “I think we found a little piece of ourselves in each other. I think there are little pieces of us that, when we got together to do this together, when we first started, each of us was missing a little chunk.”

November 9, 2024

The Wicked premiere tour arrives in sunny Los Angeles.

wicked
Gilbert Flores - Getty Images

November 11, 2024

And then Mexico City!

wicked part one mexico city yellow carpet
Cristopher Rogel Blanquet - Getty Images

November 14, 2024

And then New York!

wicked
John Nacion - Getty Images

November 18, 2024

And then Europe!

wicked
Gareth Cattermole - Getty Images

Meanwhile, we are treated to some truly iconic press tour moments.

November 21, 2024

But nothing and no one could have prepared us for this:

November 22, 2024

Ariana's boyfriend and co-star Ethan Slater tells Today, "I think it’s an emotional process to dive into characters who go through such a journey. It’s been a really long and intense process. When you do that, you really bond with the people you’re around… Their friendship is really real and really deep and really informed by the work that they did together. I think they’re getting to talk about [it] and getting to reflect on it while they’re still in the midst of it.”

Annnnd that pretty much brings us up to date! Stay tuned for more Cynthia and Ari moments.

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