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Bad: forever is strongly tied to it The Wizard of Oz (1939), to the point where the original film is worth watching first.
Bad: forever completes the story of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) that began in Bad, her reputation as the Wicked Witch of the West is cemented, as Glinda the Good (Ariana Grande) learns to live up to her name.
Should You Watch ‘The Wizard of Oz’ Before ‘Wicked: For Good’?
It certainly helps –Bad: forever assumes that viewers are very familiar with the events of The Wizard of Oz.
If you’ve never seen the original film, you may have trouble understanding certain parts of the story.
Happy, The Wizard of Oz still holds up today – there’s a reason why the classic musical is considered one of the most iconic films to ever come out of Hollywood.
Actors Ray Bolger (1904-1987), Jack Haley (1897-1979), Judy Garland (1922-1969) and Bert Lahr (1895-1967) in costume on the yellow brick road in a scene from the film ‘The Wizard of Oz’, 1939. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
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The late, great director David Lynch was famous obsessed with the film, and its influence is still felt in the stories told today.
The Wizard of Oz is based on the 1900 book by L. Frank Baum The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
With his book, Baum aimed to create an original American fairy tale and wrote deliberately simple characters, some defined by a single trait – Dorothy is good and the Wicked Witch is evil – the 1939 film maintained this dynamic (Glinda was always a side character in both).
Bad And Bad: forever are both based on the second highest-grossing Broadway musical of all time, an adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s 2000 novel, Bad.
Maguire’s novel was intended to chronicle the events of The Wizard of Oz, asking how the Wicked Witch came to be seen as a one-dimensional villain.
Maguire borrowed elements from the Wizard of Oz book and film, creating a morally ambiguous prequel that was never intended to be canon.
Bad: forever is a retelling of a well-known story, with a twist.
What is the plot of the original ‘Wizard Of Oz’?
In the 1939 film, Dorothy is forced to leave Kansas after a hurricane lifts her house and drops it in the magical land of Oz.
Dorothy’s house accidentally crushes the Wicked Witch of the East, the Munchkins’ oppressor, and as a reward, Glinda the Good gives Dorothy the witch’s magical ruby slippers (the slippers look silver in the colors). Bad: foreverwhich is the color from the original novel).
Dorothy sets out on the Yellow Brick Road to see the Wizard of Oz and find a way home, but makes three friends along the way: the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion.
The trio all feel like they are missing something, with Scarecrow looking for a brain, the Tin Man looking for a heart and the Cowardly Lion looking for courage.
The Wizard orders the three to kill the Wicked Witch of the West. She accidentally succeeds: the Wicked Witch sets Scarecrow on fire and Dorothy throws water to extinguish it, causing the Wicked Witch to melt into a puddle.
The three return to the Emerald City for their reward and discover the truth about the wizard: he is just an ordinary man from Dorothy’s world.
However, the Wizard turns out to be a trickster with a heart of gold, and gives the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion trinkets that fool them into discovering the positive qualities they always had.
The Wizard plans to take Dorothy back to Kansas in a hot air balloon, but he is lifted into the sky without Dorothy after Toto runs away.
Glinda the Good returns to reassure Dorothy that she, like her companions, had the solution all along, and Dorothy uses the magic slippers to return home.
The film portrays the entire journey as a dream, unlike the novel.
Bad: forever adds a more complex story beneath the surface of Dorothy’s journey.
How ‘Wicked: for Good’ connects to ‘The Wizard Of Oz’
Bad: forever creates origin stories for Dorothy’s three companions, even explaining the hurricane that brought her to Kansas as the work of Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh).
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
The Tin Man
Elphaba visits her disabled sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode), who rules Munchkinland, and enchants Nessa’s silver slippers as a good deed, allowing her sister to fly.
This backfires after Nessa’s lover, Boq (Ethan Slater), storms out, intimidated by the use of magic.
Nessa then uses the Grimmerie, Oz’s powerful spell book, to enchant Boq’s heart and make him stay with her forever.
Nessa botches the spell and shrinks his heart, forcing Elphaba to cast a desperate curse to save Boq, turning him into a metal man without a heart: the Tin Man.
The original novel gives the Tin Man a creepy, somewhat similar origin. He falls in love with a servant of the Wicked Witch of the East, and the witch blocks their marriage by cursing his axe, causing it to cut off a body part with each swing. Over time, his body is replaced piece by piece.
The 1939 film does not give the Tin Man an origin, but it does mention that “the tinsmith forgot to give me a heart,” suggesting he was built.
Dorothy’s arrival and the origin of the scarecrow
We only see Dorothy from behind Bad: forever-the main character of The Wizard of Oz is turned into a mysterious agent of chaos who sweeps across the country making massive changes without ever knowing the truth of her actions.
Madame Morrible deliberately creates the tornado and causes Dorothy’s house to fall on Nessarose, killing her and causing Glinda to give the silver slippers to Dorothy.
This enrages Elphaba, causing her and Glinda to have a physical fight, broken up by Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), Glinda’s ex-husband and Elphaba’s true love.
Fiyero sacrifices himself to Oz’s guards, allowing Elphaba to escape.
Fiyero is beaten nearly to death by the guards and hung on a wooden cross, and again Elphaba desperately uses her magic to protect Fiyero from any physical harm, turning him into a Scarecrow.
In the novel, the Scarecrow is just a scarecrow, and he describes gaining consciousness as a Munchkin farmer creates his body.
The 1939 film isn’t concerned with its origins; the Scarecrow’s romantic backstory with Glinda and Elphaba is just one Bad invention.
The cowardly lion
The Cowardly Lion (Colman Domingo) first appears as a cub Badprotected by Elphaba. In Bad: foreverthis good deed is reframed as a disservice, with Elphaba blamed for the lion growing up to be a coward.
It is unclear whether the Cowardly Lion actually believes this, or is too afraid to say anything.
In the novel, there is no origin story, and the Cowardly Lion is never truly afraid. In fact, the novel makes it clear that all three companions excel in exactly the qualities they think they lack, but the 1939 film portrays the Cowardly Lion as very cowardly indeed.
Oz’s suppression of the talking animal population is also an invention of Badtransforming the Wizard of Oz into an evil deceiver instead of a benevolent liar.
‘Wicked: For Good’ changes ‘The Wizard of Oz’
Bad: forever depicts the titular wizard as a villain and ruthless tyrant, oppressing the animal population as a means to seize control.
The twist ending of For the good reveals that the wizard is actually Elphaba’s father, who “seduced” Elphaba’s mother with a magic potion that resulted in her green skin.
The Wizard is surprised to hear this and leaves the Land of Oz in shame after Glinda tells him the truth.
The original film and novel take a much more sympathetic approach to the Wizard: he is a shameless guy who takes advantage of the naivete of Oz’s citizens, but he is also a good leader and an inspiration to many.
In later novels (Baum wrote several sequels), the Wizard returns to the story, and his role in the history of Oz proves to be more sinister than it first appears, as he expelled the royal family and installed himself as ruler of the Land.
However, he is never portrayed as an outright villain; he is a gentle trickster, a man who followed his ambition as far as he could and lied every step of the way.
Bad: forever ends with Elphaba reunited with Fiyero, who flees the Land of Oz by crossing a vast, uninhabited desert. This desert does not exist The Wizard of Ozbut it is part of Baum’s books and is known as the Deadly Desert.
The Deadly Desert surrounds Oz and is covered in sand that kills anyone who touches it, which is clearly not part of Bad canon.
However, the Deadly Desert appears in the surprisingly dark sibling The Wizard of Ozthe 1985 sequel Return to Oz.
If you’ve seen them both Bad movies and The Wizard of Oz, give Return to Oz give it a try (it’s available to stream on Disney+).
Like Bad: forever, Return to Oz is a different take on Baum’s world and is more faithful to the books than the 1939 film.
Baum’s books and the classic Wizard of Oz film inspired many spin-offs, reinterpretations and retellings –Bad: forever is the latest in a long line of Oz stories.
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