NEED TO KNOW
While Wicked is an origin story for the witches of Oz, much of it overlaps with the events of The Wizard of Oz — and the blustery arrival of one Dorothy Gale.
Wicked: For Good, the movie musical sequel bringing Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a.k.a. the Wicked Witch of the West, and Ariana Grande as Glinda the Good back to the big screen, will feature moments and images — like that road of yellow brick! — reminiscent of the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie starring Judy Garland.
PEOPLE’s brand-new special issue, full of behind-the-scenes details and available for purchase now, offers glimpses of what fans of both stories can expect.
The second of director Jon M. Chu’s two movies adapting Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz’s Broadway musical “is the collision point,” the filmmaker tells PEOPLE, between L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, its 1939 movie adaptation and Wicked — “the moment that that house drops in and that girl Dorothy comes into our story.”
People Magazine
Chu, 45, confirms that as with the brief glimpse of the gingham-clad Kansas girl in 2024’s Wicked: Part One, audiences will not see her face.
“I didn’t want to step on who you think Dorothy is in whatever story that you came into this with. She’s probably more in this story than in the show and yet not taking over the story — it is still Elphaba and Glinda’s journey, and she is a pawn in the middle of all of it,” he explains.
“I love that these two worlds get to collide in this movie,” adds Chu. “It’s the thing that we’ve all been waiting for.”
Erivo, 38, agreed with Chu’s decision to feature only from afar the character that the late Garland made iconic. “I think that’s such a wonderful thing to do,” the Oscar nominee told Empire in September, “because then everyone gets to keep the Dorothy that they know.”
As fans of the stage show know, Dorothy isn’t the only character from The Wizard of Oz with an important role in the second half of Wicked’s story.
“You get to see the origin stories of classic characters: the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow,” Chu says. What happens to one of them, he teases, “I think, is shocking.”
Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
As for Dorothy’s look, Wicked’s Oscar-winning costume designer Paul Tazewell had a tricky balance to strike, he says. Because her gingham dress in 1939’s Wizard of Oz is copyrighted, the team drew inspiration from Baum’s original Oz books.
“The silhouette and styling is more connected to an 1890s-1900s dress,” Tazewell, 61, says. “That very specific length of the skirt is reflective of the Judy Garland Dorothy. It’s trying to bring all of those archetypes together and, in doing that, creating our own that would be familiar, down to the blue socks.”
Go behind the scenes of Wicked: For Good with PEOPLE’s new special issue, available here. The film is in theaters Nov. 21.
