Shares 0 0 0 0 0 0 Few stories have captured the imagination quite like L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). From the iconic ruby slippers to the yellow brick road, to the vivid technicolour imagery of the 1939 film adaptation, The Wizard of Oz , the musical fantasy series has become ingrained in popular culture, with its themes of courage, friendship, and self-discovery resonating with viewers of all ages and generations.
But as beloved as the book and film are, its black-and-white depiction of good versus evil invites a question: What if the Wicked Witch of the West, who terrorised Dorothy and her companions, wasn’t as wicked as she seemed? What if the story we thought we knew was just one side of a much more complex tale? Wicked , the long-awaited film adaptation of the blockbuster musical, itself loosely adapted from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 revisionist novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, takes this familiar narrative on its head. Directed by Jon M. Chu, who is no stranger to visually stunning rom-coms and musicals à la Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and In The Heights (2021), the movie dives into the backstory of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo, Harriet ), the so-called Wicked Witch, and her unlikely friendship with Glinda (Ariana Grande, Victorious ), the Good Witch.
With a Broadway sensation that inspired that grossed over US$6 billion worldwide , the film adaptation of Wicked doesn’t just reimagine The Wizard of Oz , but also refr.