The film version of Wicked came out in November 2024 to much fanfare and has made over $471M at the box office. It brings a fresh take and new story to the great Wizard of Oz tale by L. Frank Baum and is brought to life on screen via the adaptation from Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allen Woolf. The new movie was directed by Jon M. Chu, who directed Crazy Rich Asians, written by experienced scribes Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox with music done by the prolific Stephen Schwarzman. Schwarzman has written the lyrics for many musicals such as Wicked, Godspell and films like Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
The original film is a timeless classic that earned over $30M in the box office in 1939, opening just two weeks before WWII erupted. Adjusted to today’s dollars that would be a whopping $658M in 2024. The original film and novel spawned many spin-offs and, most notably, the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. Maguire authored the book which was released in 1995. The musical Wicked is a loose adaptation of Maguire’s novel mixed with Baum’s novel and the original film from 1939. So, where does the veteran tie-in come into play with Wizard of Oz and Wicked? Well, first with the one and only Judy Garland, whose iconic portrayal of Dorothy is still remembered today. Garland went on a USO tour in the 1940s and sold war bonds to support the efforts. In John Sforza’s Andrews Sisters biography, “Swing It!: The Andrews Sisters Story,” he stated that Garland enjoyed her work with the USO, and in a 1942 Hollywood Reporter article, shared, “The immense thrill and gratification of doing what little I could to entertain came first … the friendships made with the boys and the knowledge that we can never do enough for the soldiers who have left their homes and families to fight our battles.”
In addition to Dorothy, Tin Man Jack Haley did a USO tour during WWII, bringing much-needed laughter to the troops. While the Cowardly Lion Bert Lahr didn’t serve during the Second World War, Lahr served in the U.S. Navy during World War I as a seaman second class. Noel Langley, one of the screenwriters from the 1939 version, served during WWII in the Royal Canadian Navy. Now, fast forward to Wicked.
Wicked‘s film version stars many top names in music and Hollywood today, with Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp and Ariana Grande-Butera as Galinda Upland. While not much is written about Ariana Grande’s grandfather, Frank, he did enlist in the Army on June 30, 1942, and is believed to have served for three years during wartime (unclear where he was stationed). According to ancestry.com, Frank was medically discharged in October 1945 for exostosis (non-cancerous bone growth) in his feet.
Frank talks about his relationship with Ariana’s grandmother, Nonna, in this video posted by Ariana, stating their dating was interrupted by him going into the service. Ariana was extremely close to her grandfather, who passed in 2014 due to cancer at the age of 90. She attended the Wicked premiere with her grandmother in their hometown of Boca Raton at her childhood movie theater.
The Wicked cast is rounded out with Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh and the great Jeff Goldblum. The film follows much of the musical with Elphaba’s journey being the focal point as the future Wicked Witch of the West and her friendship with the future Glinda the Good. Such elements taken from the 1939 film include the color scheme of pink and green, the characters of Elphaba and Galinda have similarities to their 1939 versions, the Cowardly Lion is freed by Elphaba in the 2024 version to later become the full-grown Cowardly Lion in the 1939 film version, the origins of the flying monkeys who serve the Wicked Witch are shown who appear in the 1939 version, Glinda enters in her bubble, there is a shot of the Yellow Brick Road with the four original main characters on it and a vintage version of the Universal logo is displayed. Langley’s influence is central to the storyline and character development.
Langley’s career benefited from the original film’s success. He continued his career before and after WWII with projects such as Northwest Passage, They Made Me a Fugitive, Scrooge, The Prisoner of Zenda, Snow White and the Three Stooges, and The Vikings. Langley wrote for the Saturday Evening Post and many other publications during his life. Critical and audience response to the film has been positive. It is listed as one of the top ten films of 2024 by AFI, it won Best Film at the National Board of Review, it earned four nominations at the 82nd Golden Globe awards which included Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and won one for cinematic and box office achievement.
The film has also been nominated for Best Picture at the 30th Critic’s Choice Awards. A sequel, Wicked Part Two is scheduled for release in Nov 2025. The new movie has spawned a toy line by Mattel and it holds an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences rated the film at an “A” via CinemaScore. The film is a great adventure with inspirational songs, and it is definitely worth checking out.