Why Wicked: For Good Won't Show Dorothy Gale's Face

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"Wicked: For Good" is coming to theaters at the end of November, a year after the first part of Jon M. Chu's adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical earned critical acclaim and crushed the box office. Apparently, Chu is making a pretty bold choice when it comes to one major part of this sequel's story, and it concerns Dorothy Gale, the protagonist of "The Wizard of Oz," who only lightly factors into "Wicked: Part One."

Sorry — let me back up. "The Wizard of Oz," which itself is based on Frank Baum's 1900 book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," inspired Gregory Maguire to write "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" in 1995. Maguire's book then inspired Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, and in 2003, their stage musical "Wicked" premiered in San Francisco before moving to New York City's Broadway that same year. That's how we got to Chu's massively ambitious and frankly spectacular two-part movie adaptation of the musical. So, let's go back to Dorothy. We don't know, as of this writing, who's playing Dorothy in the movie; unlike the mess over the voice of the Cowardly Lion, this is currently being kept under wraps. In a feature in People Magazine, though, Chu revealed something interesting: "Wicked: For Good" won't reveal Dorothy's face.

"I didn't want to step on who you think Dorothy is in whatever story that you came into this with," Chu told the outlet before saying the story "is still Elphaba and Glinda's journey, and she is a pawn in the middle of all of it." Still, Chu did hint at a major event from "The Wizard of Oz" that we'll see in "Wicked: For Good."

Elsewhere in the same People Magazine feature, Jon M. Chu teased a totally different take on one of the most famous things that happens in "The Wizard of Oz" that we'll see in "Wicked: For Good." Just as a reminder, after Dorothy Gale (played in the original film by Judy Garland) is transported from Kansas to Oz, the tornado that swept her in causes a house to fall on the unseen Wicked Witch of the East. After Glinda the Good Witch (Billie Burke) gives Dorothy the ruby-red slippers from the witch's dead feet, Dorothy finds herself chased by the dead witch's sister, the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton).

If you've seen "Wicked" (and if you're reading this, I sort of hope you have!), you know that the story follows the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo in Chu's films), from her teenage years until her "death" at Dorothy's hands. (Glinda Upland is also, obviously, present; she's played by Ariana Grande-Butera, and both Grande-Butera and Erivo earned well-deserved Oscar nods for their performances in the first movie). This means we'll definitely see the death of the Wicked Witch of the East, who — spoiler alert! — is Elphaba's younger sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode in Chu's films). This also means that the weather-controlling power displayed by Michelle Yeoh's Madame Morrible in the first movie will come into play; in the musical, she's the one who causes the tornado.

Talking about Yeoh's involvement, Chu said she'll usher in "an iconic moment we all know from our youth" before continuing. "We have this amazing moment of the tornado and how it gets conjured, which is not in the show, really," he remarked.

The Dorothy of it all aside (because, honestly, Jon M. Chu is right that the story is really about Glinda and Elphaba and not about Dorothy), what else can we expect from "Wicked: For Good?" Chu was decently tight-lipped throughout the People feature, although a lot of it did focus on the wedding between Glinda and the handsome Winkie prince Fiyero Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey), who attended the magical Shiz University alongside both Glinda and Elphaba. This isn't a spoiler (the wedding is featured prominently in the final "Wicked: For Good" trailer), but you might remember that, in the first film, there was an undeniable romantic spark between Elphaba and Fiyero, despite Glinda's impassioned attempts to keep her relationship with Fiyero as healthy as possible. (Without directly spoiling anything here, Fiyero has a ... tough road ahead of him, to put it lightly.)

We'll also see the full might of Oz, led by the duplicitous Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), as it fights against Elphaba and her attempt to unmask the man (who's honestly just a random dude from Nebraska, canonically) — and see which side Glinda, Elphaba's best friend, chooses in this magical war. We'll have to wait until November 21, 2025, to see the full scale of this thrilling conclusion to Elphaba, Glinda, and Fiyero's stories and how they intertwine when all is said and done, but as far as Dorothy is concerned, she's not the main focus. 

If you want to catch up before "Wicked: For Good" hits theaters, "Wicked: Part One" is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.