--- title: How Wicked Connects to The Wizard of Oz description: While Wicked puts a revisionist spin on the earliest Oz tale, the story's connection to its original source material remains integral. canonical: https://time.com/7177961/wicked-wizard-of-oz-connections/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-11-22T13:30:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:51:49.344Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: How Wicked Connects to The Wizard of Oz og:description: While Wicked puts a revisionist spin on the earliest Oz tale, the story's connection to its original source material remains integral. og:url: https://time.com/7177961/wicked-wizard-of-oz-connections/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb943d73cc8139c37/698a9c5a47ca38cba23c49cc/Wicked-Glinda.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Wicked og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Wicked Connects to The Wizard of Oz twitter:description: While Wicked puts a revisionist spin on the earliest Oz tale, the story's connection to its original source material remains integral. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb943d73cc8139c37/698a9c5a47ca38cba23c49cc/Wicked-Glinda.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How _Wicked_ Connects to The Wizard of Oz > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 22, 2024 1:30 PM UTC  Ariana Grande as Glinda in Wicked. Ariana Grande as Glinda in Wicked.Giles Keyte—Universal Pictures  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 22, 2024 1:30 PM UTC When [L. Frank Baum](https://time.com/collection/100-best-fantasy-books/5898430/ozma-of-oz/) published _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_ in 1900, it seems unlikely that he could have had any idea just how significant a role the story would come to play in pop culture. In the nearly 125 years since the novel's debut, it has evolved from a beloved book series to an [enduring film classic](https://time.com/5647491/wizard-of-oz-curse/) to a reimagined villain origin story to a mega-hit Broadway musical to a highly-anticipated two-part movie adaptation. With the first installment of director Jon M. Chu's [_Wicked_](https://time.com/7177832/wicked-movie-review/) film saga now in theaters, the iconic characters brought to life by Baum more than a century ago have reached their current, if not final, form. But while _Wicked_ puts a revisionist spin on the earliest Ozian tale, the story's connection to its original source material remains integral to its appeal. Based on the award-winning 2003 Broadway musical, which itself was loosely inspired by Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel _Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West_, the _Wicked_ movie tells the story of the unlikely friendship between Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande) and how they came to be known as the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of Oz, respectively. The stage show and film both open with Glinda descending from the sky in a bubble to announce to the residents of Munchkinland that the Wicked Witch is indeed dead. But then, as Glinda prepares to depart, a question rings out: "Is it true you were her friend?"  Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda in Wicked. Giles Keyte—Universal Pictures From there, we flash back in time to the young pair's tenure at Shiz University, years before Dorothy Gale of Kansas crash-lands in Oz. The entirety of the first _Wicked_ movie, which is drawn from Act I of the musical, takes place in this relative timeframe, with the closing number of "Defying Gravity" soundtracking the scene where Elphaba and Glinda's paths diverge at the Emerald Palace. But that doesn't mean there's any shortage of nods to _The Wizard of Oz_, from the reveal that the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) is a charlatan with no actual magic to the planned construction of the Yellow Brick Road to Elphaba (unintentionally) creating her future cohort of flying monkeys. Act II of the Broadway musical, which will play out on screen when _Wicked Part Two_ arrives in theaters next November, more directly ties into _The Wizard of Oz_ timeline, with Dorothy's arrival ultimately resulting in Elphaba's downfall. But, while we won't spoil too much here, prepare to have your expectations upended about the roles Dorothy and her pals (namely, Scarecrow, Lion, and the Tin Man) play in the events surrounding Elphaba's ruin if you don't already know what happens in the musical. As for why stories about Oz and its inhabitants have continued to resonate with audiences for so many years, Chu chalks it up to the idea that "_The Wizard of Oz_ was always sort of prophetic in a way." "\[The 1939 movie\] was written at a time of America in transition," he told [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/wicked-jon-chu-wizard-oz-2024-election-historic-shift-rcna180015). "At that point, the Depression had just finished and they’re about to go into war. And so it’s always a question of about what the American dream looks like when the road ends and what are the possibilities of the next thing." ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7177961/wicked-wizard-of-oz-connections/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7177961/wicked-wizard-of-oz-connections/"},"headline":"How Wicked Connects to The Wizard of Oz","datePublished":"2024-11-22T13:30:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:51:49.344Z","description":"While Wicked puts a revisionist spin on the earliest Oz tale, the story's connection to its original source material remains integral.","url":"https://time.com/7177961/wicked-wizard-of-oz-connections/","keywords":["movies","Explainer","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb943d73cc8139c37/698a9c5a47ca38cba23c49cc/Wicked-Glinda.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb943d73cc8139c37/698a9c5a47ca38cba23c49cc/Wicked-Glinda.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Wicked","caption":"Wicked","creditText":"Giles Keyte—Universal Pictures","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7177961/wicked-wizard-of-oz-connections/","name":"How Wicked Connects to The Wizard of Oz"}}]}] ```