A fan has charged at Ariana Grande at the premiere of Wicked: For Good – see footage of the incident below.
Yesterday (November 13), Universal Pictures held the Asia-Pacific premiere of Wicked: For Good at the Universal Studios theme park in Singapore. During the event, a male fan jumped the barricade and dashed towards Ariana Grande, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and jumping up and down beside her.
The moment saw the singer freeze up in pure shock, while her co-star Cynthia Erivo swiftly leapt into action, prying the man away from Grande. Security later seized the assailant, while Erivo and actress Michelle Yeoh checked in on Grande.
The fan – identified as Johnson Wen from Australia – later shared a clip of his intrusion on social media, gloating: “Dear Ariana Grande, thank you for letting me jump on the Yellow Carpet with you.”
Wen later shared footage from a different angle of him being apprehended and tossed out of the venue by security. He also claimed in a separate video that he was “free” after being arrested. It is currently unclear if he is facing any legal consequences for the incident. Grande, Erivo and Yeoh have yet to publicly comment on the matter.
This isn’t Wen’s first time rushing at prolific artists. The man, who calls himself a “troll” on social media, has shared clips of himself running onstage at a Chainsmokers concert in December in Sydney, a Katy Perry gig in the same city in June, and again at a Weeknd show in Melbourne in August.
He has also invaded the 100m finals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the 2023 Cricket World Cup finals.
Wicked: For Good is set to premiere in cinemas worldwide on November 21.
Wicked received a four-star review from NME, with Nick Levine writing: “By the end, you won’t quite be levitating off your seat but you’ll definitely be enchanted enough to stream the soundtrack on the way home. Funny, colourful and full of empathy for outsiders, this film really is the Shiz.”
Chu claimed last year For Good is “more relevant” to where we are “in society right now,”: “Part Two, I will say because I’ve cut Part Two together, is a doozy.
“[You’re] getting the meat. I did not know the context of where we’d be in society right now. It becomes eight times more relevant than before when you’re talking about truth and consequences of making the right or wrong choices. It’s intense.”