For all Wicked and Wizard of Oz superfans, it may come as no surprise that Wicked: For Good depicts Dorothy’s iconic ruby red slippers as silver. But for everyone else, the film’s costume designer has shared the fascinating reason why.
For Good, in theaters now, stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, who’s living in exile after being demonized as the Wicked Witch of the West, while Ariana Grande’s Glinda the Good Witch resides in popularity and fame in the Emerald City palace. When an angry mob rises against Elphaba, she must reunite with Glinda to transform herself and all of Oz for good.
*Warning, potential Wicked: For Good spoilers to follow*
The sequel, which comes a year after Jon M. Chu’s Oscar-nominated Wicked, adapts the second act of the hit Broadway musical and welcomes a brief appearance from Dorothy, the main protagonist of The Wizard of Oz.
While the original 1939 Judy Garland-led Wizard of Oz — based on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel — featured Dorothy in sparkly ruby-red slippers, Wicked costume designer Paul Tazewell told People that Baum never wrote her shoes to be red.
“They’re not ruby,” he said. “In the book, they were these odd little silver boots.”
However, because The Wizard of Oz was made in Technicolor, the studio, MGM, was eager to showcase the full range of colors the process could capture and gave costume designer Gilbert Adrian the creative liberty to stray from the source material.
Tazewell chose instead to honor Baum’s original concept and give Dorothy silver heels in For Good.
Also, since MGM, now owned by Warner Bros., holds the rights to the ruby red slippers, and the Wicked films are distributed by Universal Pictures, director Chu had “boundaries of what we could reference or not.”
Thus, “we never use the ruby slippers,” he told Variety last month.
The slippers are a crucial detail in the story, helping to set the events in motion. Originally passed down to Elphaba’s disabled sister, Nessarose (played by Marissa Bode), by their father, they’re later gifted to Dorothy by Glinda after Nessarose’s death.
When Elphaba discovers that her family heirloom has been given to Dorothy, she becomes enraged and pursues her.
For Good, which opened in theaters Friday, is already on track to break box office records and become the biggest debut ever for a Broadway adaptation. It’s so far raked in $151 million domestically and $228 million globally.
Alongside Erivo and Grande, it welcomes back Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Bowen Yang, Michelle Yeoh and Ethan Slater. Colman Domingo joins the cast as the voice of the Cowardly Lion.
Wicked: For Good is playing in theaters now.
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