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We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore, Toto, because this post has MAJOR spoilers for “Wicked: For Good.” You have been warned!
Universal/Everett Collection
If you’ve already seen it, or if you’re a big fan of the musical, you already know that “Wicked: For Good” ends with Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) fleeing Oz entirely after the former fakes her death (a fake conflation, if you will).
Giles Keyte / Universal / Everett Collection
The two characters go to an unnamed desert land referred to in the early 20th century book that started this whole Oz-mania, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, as the “Deadly Desert.” It sounds scary!
Giles Keyte / Universal / Everett Collection
And it turns out that “Wicked: For Good” director Jon M. Chu and his team of Oz-heads originally had darker designs for this part of the film’s ending, or so he revealed in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Giles Keyte / Universal / Everett Collection
In the chat, Jon revealed that he and his team considered concluding the film with “versions of that desert that were much darker and scarier, like walking into your fears.” Why didn’t they do it then?
Giles Keyte / Universal / Everett Collection
Well, Jon decided that the sandy spot itself “isn’t dead space, it’s a possibility. No one has explored that horizon because everyone is too scared.”
Giles Keyte / Universal / Everett Collection
“Let’s put sparkles in that sand!” he added about the film’s final ending.
Universal/Everett Collection