The film adaptation of Wicked ends at the same time as the first act of the hit Broadway musical, with Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba deciding to take on the Wonderful Wizard of Oz and fly away from the Emerald City – all while performing “Defying Gravity.”
But where does the sequel to Wicked: For Good begin?
The second film begins with the construction of a yellow brick road – yes, the same one from the 1939 Wizard of Oz – which is carried out with the help of the labor of local animals. But the work is interrupted by none other than Elphaba, who flies in on her broom to free the animals. The leaders of the Emerald City describe her rebellion as pure violence, earning her the famous nickname of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Meanwhile, Glinda, having decided not to leave Oz with her best friend at the end of the first film, firmly established herself as a figurehead in Wicked: For Good, speaking out against evil and lifting the spirit of the Ozians.
Vinnie Holtzman, who wrote the book Wicked and co-wrote both films, told TODAY.com that it's only been a year since the end of Wicked and that fateful day in the Emerald City when Elphaba and Glinda chose their path.
“That's why we say 12 turns of the tide—I don't know if you heard that (in Michelle Yeoh's Madame Morrible)—but she said, 'It was 12 turns of the tide,'” Holtzman says. “We tried to find a way to say it in a way that didn’t sound like our world.”
Holtzman says the goal was to subtly tell viewers that a “significant amount of time” had passed, but not an “infinite amount.”
“A lot must have happened during this time, but Elphaba may have begun to feel despondent. If three months had passed, you know she'd be in a different space,” she says.
Holtzman's co-creator Dana Fox adds that they also wanted to evoke a feeling of “nostalgia.”
“We wanted it to feel like nostalgia for the memories of your youth, so we could really bring out that feeling in people,” Fox says.
“The year seemed like exactly the time I needed. You know what it’s like when you’ve had a big year, when so much has changed in your life—this year,” she adds. “So it seems like it's more than it is, but it's been a year.”
They also decided to make this the year to connect with audiences who were introduced to the world of the Wicked movie this time last year.
“This will be exactly what the audience experienced because they saw it a year ago,” Fox says. “So we wanted them to go along with the girls in that way.”
“But I intentionally didn't want it to say 'one year,'” Holtzman adds. “I mean, this isn't Oz.”
How did they settle on “tides” as a unit of measurement?
“John (M. Chu) has so many beautiful images of water in both films,” says Holtzman. “Water is a symbol of the unconscious, a dream-like state where you go deeper and analyze.”
Plus (minor spoiler): Water is ultimately what “kills” Elphaba, as seen in The Wizard of Oz, Fox notes.
“It’s also very feminine,” she says.
Holtzman and Fox say they considered all of these meanings—even just those two words—when writing the script.
“We go deeper because these things, even though the audience might say, 'Well, I didn't make all these connections,' they don't have to, but they're there somewhere,” Holtzman says.
“And we wanted to create a movie where, if you watch it 20 times, you can get something new every time,” Fox adds.
