A question that has been on many fans’ lips in the lead-up to the release of Wicked For Good was who would play Dorothy in the film.

Anyone who has seen the musical Wicked knows that Dorothy, the iconic character from The Wizard of Oz, plays a role in the story, although the character never appears on stage.

Dorothy and her friends as shown in the Wicked For Good trailer
Dorothy and her friends as shown in the Wicked For Good trailer

Universal

It is a continuous part in which Dorothy is never seen, although she is spoken to offstage and appears in silhouette form, and this trend is largely followed in the big screen adaptation.

Over the past year, Matilda actress Alisha Weir had been very rumored will play Dorothy after walking the red carpet at the first film’s premiere in November 2024.

Judy Garland in the iconic role of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz
Judy Garland in the iconic role of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz

MGM/Kobal/Shutterstock

Alisha already has a lot of musical theater experience on both stage and screen, and would have also been the perfect age to play Dorothy. She even fueled speculation when she refused to confirm or deny whether rumors about her taking on the role were true.

However, it has now been revealed that it is actually Bethany Weaver who plays the character first made famous on the new screen by Judy Garland. musical.

Bethany is an English choreographer, dancer and actor who trained at the Urdang Academy in London. He appeared in several theater productions, including Rumi the Musical and Broken Wings the Musical, as well as choreographing the West End musical Asmahan.

Although Bethany has yet to speak directly about the exciting casting news, What’s On Stage Claims Its Spotlight Casting Page has been updated to include both the original Wicked film (in which Dorothy appears for a few seconds during her introduction) and its sequel.

According to members of the press who has seen evil foreverBethany appears for just over a minute on screen, but she has no dialogue and her face is always obscured.

Director Jon M. Chu has a very specific reason for keeping Dorothy’s face hidden in the film.

“I didn’t want to give away who you think Dorothy is in whatever story you’ve come up with,” he said. Peopleadding that the new film “is still Elphaba and Glinda’s journey, and [Dorothy is just] a pawn in the middle of all this.”

Elphaba herself, Cynthia Erivo, also approves of hiding Dorothy’s face and believes it helps maintain the legacy of the original film. “I think it’s a wonderful thing because then everyone can keep the Dorothy they know,” she said. Empire.

Ariana Grande also spoke with Empire about Glinda’s relationship with Dorothy, admitting that her character is of no use to the young woman when it comes to giving her directions to Yellow Brick Road.

“I love the bit of shadyness that Glinda has toward Dorothy,” he told the magazine. “There’s a lot going on and she really doesn’t have time to deal with this. I could have told her to take the train to the Emerald City! But she didn’t. That’s a little shady, Glinda! So I leaned in all the way to have Glinda roll her eyes at Dorothy every time she had to deal with her,” he added.

Wicked For Good hits theaters on Friday, November 21.