Wicked is a new hit movie that was released on November 22, 2024. Wicked was originally a book created by Gregory Maguire, then a stage production, and now, finally a movie. Many people know that it’s connected to The Wizard of Oz, because they share some of the same characters, but the connections between the two stories are much broader than that.
Wicked is a fan fiction prequel of The Wizard of Oz, that takes place around 40 years before it. The author says he was inspired to write the original book because, according to an interview with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, he became interested in the nature of evil, and whether one really could be born bad.
The story of Wicked is how a young girl named Elphaba was born green and bullied her entire life. When she arrives at Shiz University, everyone is disgusted by her, but they soon realize that she is powerful. When she befriends Glinda and goes to meet the Wizard, she soon learns that everyone is not as they claim to be.
The Wizard of Oz began as a book by L. Frank Baum in 1900 and was adapted for the screen in 1939. It is a story about how a young girl, named Dorothy, gets swept up by a tornado and lands in a magical place called “The Land of Oz.” There, she meets a Scarecrow, Tin Man, and a Cowardly Lion on an adventure to find The Wizard of Oz so she can return home. Many things try to prevent her from doing that along the way, including a Wicked Witch.
The character of Elphaba in Wicked is later known as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, and Glinda is later known as the Good Witch of the North (South in the books). These two characters were reluctant friends in Wicked, but by the time The Wizard of Oz takes place, they no longer share that same friendship. The characters of the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion, and the Wicked Witch of the East are also characters we meet in Wicked, but they have not evolved into their final forms yet.
People with a sharp eye will catch many small differences between the two movies. Some of them are minor, like in Wicked, Glinda’s hair is blonde, while in The Wizard of Oz, her hair is reddish brown. Also, in the beginning of Wicked, Dorothy and friends are going to meet the Wizard. The Cowardly Lion is shown as an actual lion on four legs, whereas in The Wizard of Oz, he is a human in a lion suit.
There were, however, changes that are more significant when it comes to how you think about the Land of Oz. In Wicked, the iconic slippers that Nessarose wears are silver, instead of red, like in the 1939 movie. In the original books by L. Frank Baum, the slippers are silver, which is the color that has been used in most television or movie adaptations since 1939. Why? In 1939, when they were making the original Wizard of Oz movie, it was one of the first major movies to ever be in color, so they wanted the shoes to be a color that would shine more on screen. The reason most adaptations since 1939 have used silver slippers is because of copyright issues with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Another difference is that in the 2024 film, the citizens of Munchkinland were played by average-height actors. In the 1939 film, they were played by little people. The director of Wicked, Jon Chu, said in an interview for GQ magazine, “We were trying to reinvent what a Munchkin is. In our eyes, Munchkin was not a size.”
It is rather incredible how a book made 124 years ago, inspired a movie made 85 years ago, that has continued to inspire writers and filmmakers alike even today. With more and more stories that take place in the Land of Oz being created, people aren’t forgetting about this universe anytime soon.
