Obviously, Dorothy has to enter the Wicked story eventually—the movies are based on the Broadway musical, which is based on the book, which riffs off The Wizard of Oz and its own source-material books. And everyone knows The Wizard of Oz follows Dorothy’s journey over the rainbow, where she meets and defeats the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West.
Wicked may show Elphaba’s side of the story with a sympathetic eye, but we all know she’s on a collision course with a certain bucket of water. Now, Wicked director Jon M. Chu is teasing how that pesky tornado traveler from Kansas will find her way into upcoming sequel Wicked: For Good.
Speaking to Vanity Fair in a “first-look” article timed to Wicked: For Good‘s trailer (arriving later today), Chu explained how his film will expand Dorothy’s role. In the stage musical, she’s an implied presence, but she remains hidden behind a scrim. The magazine got an early look at the trailer, however, and reveals that we’ll see Dorothy and her famous pals (the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion; presumably Toto’s there, too) strolling down the yellow brick road to Oz.
“That intersection is the place that we were first introduced into Oz,” Chu explained of Dorothy’s role in For Good. “We tread lightly, but try to make more sense of how it impacts our girls and our characters than maybe the show does.”
However, don’t expect Wicked: For Good to be the Dorothy show. “We’re delicate. We’re delicate. We’re delicate,” Chu emphasized, anticipating that fans of the musical might shudder at the thought of too many changes.
Speaking of changes, the profile also gives a few details about the two new songs that will appear in For Good; one for Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba, and one for Ariana Grande’s Glinda. And though the first Wicked contained the musical’s most famous tunes (including the show-stopping “Defying Gravity,” which came at the end of the film), Chu insists “there are some bangers” to come in the sequel.
Wicked: For Good hits theaters November 21. Check back on io9 for the much-anticipated first trailer later today.
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