Individually painted yellow bricks, a sixteen-ton two-part emerald green train, and 9 million tulips planted, the wonderful world of Oz did not skip out on any details to bring its cinematic adaptation to life in Wicked. 

In the latest behind-the-scenes sneak peek at the beloved musical, director Jon M. Chu and stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande walked audiences through the complete making of the major set pieces from the Emerald City, Shiz University, and Munchkinland.  The camera zooms through scaffoldings for the grand hall of Shiz and up close and personal to the flower-lined rooftops of Munchkinland. Of course, audiences have seen the Emerald City and Munchkinland depicted in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, but Chu puts his spin on it in addition to building out the world of Oz pre-Dorothy. 

At the core of this feat is the question asked by Chu “What does it feel like to be in Oz? To feel it in your fingertips. If you want to be inside that world, you must build it.” The new feature goes deep into how the combination of special effects and visual effects mixed with the production design brought this magical world to life. The video perfectly splices the building of set pieces with their actual final shots seen in many trailers that emphasize the amount of work that goes into creating the aura of Oz for these characters to seamlessly slip into.

Wandering the hall of Shiz, details of school books and trinkets litter throughout to make the living feel of a well-established, prestigious university that sets the stage for Elphaba and Glinda’s origin meeting. Erivo notes that “all of it adds to the things that you can imagine” with Grande chiming in that “a lot of it is real, physical, tangible sets”. Chu and Co. have built the most imaginative stage for many of the musical numbers to occur throughout this sisterhood saga that never shies away from the main story at stake between these two women. A sense of intimacy yet epicness can be felt from zooming around the set pieces that already immerses the audiences into whats to come this Fall.

Additionally to the locations already shown in the trailer, a deeper dive into Emerald City with most likely the musical number One Short Day makes its grand unveiling as we watch a tiny Glinda and Elphaba surrounded by the sparkling green of the city and stunted dancers as they journey to meet the Wizard. Spraying green to line the tiles of the city, the gigantic proportions make Grande and Erivo look like grains of rice truly encompassing the scale this film is working on. 

This featurette not only shows Chu’s commitment to world-building in understanding there are no shortcuts even noting that “you’ve got to grow nine million tulips, but its overall impact on crafting a true cinematic experience that will defy gravity.

Wicked will open in theaters November 22, 2024.