Wheelchair User Marissa Bode Plays Nessarose in Wicked Blockbuster

Wicked is one of the most beloved musicals of our time, but many disabled actors have been bothered by the fact that they have been left out of the casting for a wheelchair-using character. While Nessarose uses a wheelchair in the Tony-Award-winning musical, eventually she can walk when her sister Elphaba casts a spell on her shoes. Now, in the major motion picture adaptation of Wicked premiering this Friday, Marissa Bode becomes the first wheelchair user to play Nessarose.

Bode is a 24-year-old actor who grew up in Wisconsin and sustained a spinal cord injury in a car accident when she was 11 years old. She got into theater in middle school and performed in musicals throughout middle and high school before attending the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles.

Now Bode is sharing the big screen with established stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in a movie that’s expected to gross $100 million on its opening weekend. Bode’s casting was a huge win for authentic representation, especially as it required some creative adaptation from the theater version.

While Bode can’t reveal how the plot point of her spellbound shoes will be depicted in Wicked Part 2 (to be released in November 2025), she told Variety that it is handled with care. “Casting authentically and showing an authentic disabled person is very important, but it’s also very important how we’re shown,” she says. “I am very happy with the changes that have been made, for sure.”

You can see Wicked at movie theaters across the country starting Friday, Nov. 22.