The “Wicked” movie is a revelation — and it’s full of references to “The Wizard of Oz” and the original “Wicked” Broadway show that came before it.
The film, directed by Jon M. Chu, adapts the first act of the 2003 musical written by Winnie Holzman with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. That show, which itself is an adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s novel imagining a backstory for the Wicked Witch of the West, follows the magically inclined, green-skinned Elphaba and her school enemy-turned-best friend Glinda. Those roles were originated by Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth on Broadway, and in the film, they’re played by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
The impressive “Wicked” box office numbers prove it’s hitting with multiple generations of fans who love all those adaptations. In its opening weekend, the film earned an estimated $164.2 million worldwide.
The film has plenty of easter eggs for fans of the “Wicked” Broadway musical (you’ll hear some familiar act two musical cues) and those with only a surface-level understanding of Oz. We’ve rounded up some details and references that you may have missed in the film.
There are multiple rainbows in the film, nodding to ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’
“Wicked” pays its thematic due to the most iconic song from “The Wizard of Oz,” invoking rainbows multiple times. You can see one in an early shot, in the pattern of the tulips that the Munchkin children run through heralding Elphaba’s death, and again during Elphaba’s run through a field in “The Wizard and I.”
The title card is a reference to ‘The Wizard of Oz’
There’s been some controversy on social media over bad movie theater etiquette after people started taking photos of the “Wicked” title card in theaters. The whimsical, curly font is a reference to the original title card for “The Wizard of Oz.”
The film includes multiple musical cues that reference ‘For Good’
“Wicked” basically uses the opening notes of “For Good,” an Elphaba and Glinda duet in act two of the musical, as shorthand for their developing relationship throughout the film.
There’s a great example of this on the “Wicked” soundtrack, at the 0:06 minute mark of “Dear Old Shiz” after someone asks Glinda if she and Elphaba were friends.
Nessarose’s silver slippers have tornado heels
Elphaba and Nessarose’s father presents Nessa with a pair of silver heels. The shoes, which eventually pass to Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” are silver as they were originally in L. Frank Baum’s novel. However, they’re presented in a ruby case — similar to the 1939 movie.
The heels also have a swirling tornado pattern at the heel, referencing Nessa’s eventual demise when Dorothy’s house falls on her after getting picked up in a cyclone.
There’s another pair of red slippers in the film, though
During “Popular,” Glinda pulls out a pair of shining, ruby-red slippers, a reference to the ones Dorothy wears in “The Wizard of Oz.”
Glinda is backlit with a halo during ‘What Is This Feeling’
When Glinda sings the lyric, “These things are sent to try us,” she stands in front of a door with a circular window. When she centers her head in front of it, the light coming through the window turns golden.
Jonathan Bailey rides a familiar horse in ‘Wicked’
Bailey apparently got to make one casting request for “Wicked”: he wanted to bring along his favorite horse.
“I knew there was only one man for the job, and that was Jack the horse that I worked with in ‘Bridgerton,’” Bailey said on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
One shot of Elphaba resembles the original Broadway poster
When Elphaba puts on her black hat at the Oz Dust Ballroom, it briefly shadows her eyes and obscures part of her face. The shot mimics the original poster for the Broadway musical, in which the top half of Elphaba’s face is covered.
Unlike the poster, however, Erivo’s Elphaba isn’t smiling in the moment.
Fiyero being unaffected by Elphaba’s poppies is foreshadowing
Big spoilers for part two if you’re not up to date on the original musical, but through a series of unfortunate events, Fiyero eventually turns into the Scarecrow.
Like the Scarecrow in “The Wizard of Oz,” Fiyero does not succumb to the sleep-inducing effects of the poppies. Instead, he helps Elphaba spirit away the lion cub from their classroom.
As a bonus — that lion cub will eventually grow up to be the Cowardly Lion from “The Wizard of Oz.”
Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth aren’t the only Emerald City cameos
It’d be extremely difficult to miss Menzel and Chenoweth’s meaty cameos during the “Wiz-O-Mania” sequence that takes place in the Emerald City. There are two others you may have missed, however: writer Winnie Holzman and composer Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the Broadway musical. Schwartz also has an iconic line during the sequence: “The Wizard will see you now.”
“It took a lot of convincing to get them into this movie because they resisted it,” director Jon M. Chu told Entertainment Weekly. “I was like, ‘You guys have to be in this.’ We didn’t know where, and then once Stephen wrote that section to Wiz-O-Mania, it became very clear that Stephen had to do, ‘The Wizard will see you now.’”
Also, Idina Menzel does her iconic ‘Defying Gravity’
If you’re even a surface-level “Wicked” fan, you probably didn’t miss this one. In case you did, you can hear her do it at about the 4:00 minute mark of “One Short Day” on the film’s soundtrack.
The Wizard hologram says ‘Omaha’ because, canonically, he’s from Nebraska
During the “Wiz-O-Mania” presentation in the Emerald City, a hologram of the Wizard pretends to read the Grimmerie, the magical text of Oz. To do so, he just says the word “Omaha” a few times.
He is indeed referencing Omaha, Nebraska — because that’s where the Wizard is from.
There are crates and posters nodding to the Wizard’s old life
In the attic set used in “Defying Gravity,” there are posters referencing the “Wise and Magnificent Oscar Diggs.” In the above behind-the-scenes shot, you can see crates with the same text, and others that say, “Omaha, NE.”
That is the Wizard’s real name — and back in Nebraska, he was a magician.
There’s a lyric change in ‘Defying Gravity’
In the Broadway musical, the chorus sings, “Look at her, she’s wicked — get her!”
But in the movie, things are more grave. The chorus sings, “Look at her, she’s wicked — kill her!”
“Wicked” is now in theaters.
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