Note: Major spoilers ahead for “Wicked” and minor spoilers for “Wicked: For Good.”
Last year’s musical blockbuster “Wicked” was clearly presented as a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” but its sequel, “Wicked: For Good,” overlaps heavily with Dorothy’s adventures in Munchkinland and the Emerald City.
The 1939 film starring Judy Garland and other interpretations of Oz, such as the ’70s-era musical “The Wiz,” are based on the original book by Frank L. Baum, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” written in 1900.
However, the Broadway show “Wicked” and its two-part film adaptation starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 revisionist novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.”
Maguire’s novel reframes the plot of the original book and classic film. Instead of focusing on Dorothy, Maguire shifts the perspective to that of her antagonist, the Wicked Witch of the West.
Elphaba, as she’s christened by Maguire, is the hero of this version; her backstory reveals trauma and noble intentions that contextualize her treatment of Dorothy. Meanwhile, Maguire rewrites Glinda, aka the Good Witch of the North, to follow a muddier, more complicated character arc.
The stage adaptation of Maguire’s book has been a resounding success. Since its debut in 2003, “Wicked” has become the second-highest-grossing Broadway show, selling over a billion tickets.
Continue reading to understand how “The Wizard of Oz,” “Wicked,” and “Wicked: For Good” dovetail on a timeline.
‘Wicked’ starts at the end of ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ after Dorothy melts the witch
“Wicked” closely follows the first act of the Broadway musical. The movie opens on a puddle of water and a witch hat lying on the floor of a castle, hinting at the events in “The Wizard of Oz.”
In the opening sequence, the camera briefly pans over Dorothy and her crew — the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion — following the yellow brick road as a winged monkey soars over Oz.
The next scene shows Glinda arriving in Munchkinland to confirm the rumors: “The Wicked Witch of the West is dead,” she announces. The subsequent celebration is soundtracked by the musical’s opening number, “No One Mourns the Wicked.”
Glinda doesn’t explain exactly what happened, but those familiar with “The Wizard of Oz” will remember the fateful scene when Dorothy accidentally splashes the witch with a bucket of water. (“I’m melting! I’m melting!”)
After the Wicked Witch has vanished, Dorothy brings her broom to the all-powerful Wizard in Emerald City, in hopes of exchanging it for a trip back to Kansas. Instead, the literal man behind the curtain is revealed.
The Wizard admits he has no real power to help Dorothy and flies away in a hot air balloon, so Glinda steps in to help. She tells Dorothy that thanks to her magic slippers — taken from the feet of the Wicked Witch of the East — all she has to do is click her heels and chant, “There’s no place like home.”
Dorothy follows her advice and wakes up back in Kansas. This is presumably when Glinda travels to Munchkinland (via bubble, of course) to spread the word of the witch’s demise. There, she’s confronted by a Munchkin, who asks, “Is it true you were her friend?”
Glinda admits, “Our paths did cross at school,” and it is here that the real story of “Wicked” begins.
Part one of ‘Wicked’ is Elphaba’s origin story
As Glinda knows, the Wicked Witch’s real name is Elphaba Thropp. The movie flashes back to when the two girls met at Shiz University.
At that time, Glinda was still known as Galinda Upland, and Elphaba was a bullied outcast with budding magical powers — not yet feared, and certainly not seen as evil.
The movie shows how Elphaba was ostracized from birth due to her green skin. Even Galinda, who had a reputation for being sweet and popular, took part in shunning her.
The movie also shows how Galinda lacked any hints of magic, despite her dream of studying sorcery at school under Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh).
Although “Wicked” focuses heavily on Elphaba’s inner life, her family dynamics (especially with her younger sister, Nessarose, played by Marissa Bode), and her ambitions, the movie also delves into the rivalry-turned-friendship between Elphaba and Galinda.
On a fluke, the two students are paired as roommates and forced to coexist. On the surface, they couldn’t be more different — but what begins as unadulterated loathing (seriously, there’s a whole song about it) blossoms into an earnest bond of love and respect.
Eventually, the pair travels to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum), hoping to leverage his and Elphaba’s combined power for positive change.
But Elphaba is disgusted to find that the Wizard has no magic, and as a means of controlling the Ozians, he has made talking animals the scapegoats for all the realm’s ills.
Elphaba is staunchly opposed to the subjugation of Oz’s animals, so she becomes an enemy of the state.
The first “Wicked” movie ends with a climactic performance of “Defying Gravity.” Elphaba flees on her broom, sacred spellbook in hand, while Glinda (who has by now dropped the “a” in her name) is detained by royal guards.
‘Wicked: For Good’ shows how Dorothy’s story overlaps with Elphaba’s and Glinda’s
Like Act Two of the Broadway show, the “Wicked” sequel opens after an unspecified time jump. Elphaba is still in exile, while Glinda has now allied with the Wizard and with Morrible, who works as the Wizard’s press secretary and his primary propagandist.
Meanwhile, Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) has become Captain of the Emerald City Guard, and Nessarose has stepped in as Governor of Munchkinland after the death of her and Elphaba’s father.
The Wizard and Morrible are laser-focused on finding Elphaba, who’s been messing up their plans by freeing enslaved animals across Oz.
After Glinda realizes Fiyero, her fiancé, has secretly been in love with Elphaba the whole time, she acts out of heartbreak and spite, suggesting to her superiors that they use Nessarose as bait to capture Elphaba — to threaten Nessarose’s safety so that her sister will rush to her aid.
Morrible has the power to control the weather, so she decides to send a tornado toward Munchkinland — the same tornado that sweeps through Kansas in “The Wizard of Oz.” Thus, Dorothy and her house drop into the narrative.
Dorothy pops up throughout ‘Wicked: For Good,’ but she’s not a main character in the film
For over 85 years, Dorothy has been famous for dropping a house on the Wicked Witch of the East and melting the Wicked Witch of the West. Audiences know going into see “Wicked: For Good” that she plays a big role in the fates of key characters.
So, if you’re wondering how Dorothy’s arrival figures into the film’s grand musical numbers and emotional onscreen revelations, the answer may surprise you: For the most part, it doesn’t.
By this point in the story, both Glinda and Elphaba are dealing with plenty of personal drama. They hardly have the bandwidth to worry about some farm girl who fell out of the sky — and the film’s director, John M. Chu, decided to play up their indifference. In fact, the audience never even gets a look at Dorothy’s face.
“I didn’t want to step on who you think Dorothy is in whatever story that you came into this with,” Chu told People. “[This] is still Elphaba and Glinda’s journey, and she is a pawn in the middle of all of it.”
Grande made a similar choice in her portrayal of Glinda, delighting in the “shadiness” of their offscreen interactions. After all, the so-called Good Witch famously tells Dorothy to “follow the yellow brick road,” knowing full well she could take a train to the Emerald City. She also instructs Dorothy to ask for the Wizard’s help, knowing full well the Wizard has no magic.
“There’s a lot going on, and she doesn’t really have time to deal with this,” Grande told Empire. “So I leaned all the way into Glinda sort of having an eye roll for Dorothy whenever she has to deal with her.”
Ayomikun Adekaiyero contributed to an earlier version of this story.
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