Wicked: For Good Cut This Glinda Scene Because It Was 'Too Passionate'

The yellow brick road ahead is filled with spoilers for "Wicked: For Good," so proceed on your broomstick or in your bubble with the utmost caution!

Based on the run time of "Wicked: For Good" — Jon M. Chu's adaptation of the relatively brief second act of "Wicked," the Broadway musical written by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman — it's surprising that anything got cut. Still, according to the film's co-writer Dana Fox (who worked with Holzman on the big-screen adaptation), it actually was missing something pretty big: a passionate moment between Glinda the "Good Witch" (Ariana Grande-Butera) and Winkie prince Fiyero Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey).

In an exclusive interview with Deadline, Fox said that she felt like the cuts that were ultimately made were "for [...] the right reasons," but there's something that might eventually make its way to a deleted scene section on a physical release. "There was a scene between Fiyero and Glinda that we cut in which they kissed; it was romantic and beautiful, but a little too passionate," Fox shared. "Seeing that made it too hard to watch him make the choice he makes to be with Elphaba and made it too hard to make it OK that Elphaba ran off with him. It was too real that he and Glinda were actually feeling something together." 

What Fox is talking about here is a scene where Fiyero, who is part of an arranged betrothal with Glinda, chooses Glinda's rival turned best friend, Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo), a wanted and very green woman known by all of Oz as The Wicked Witch of the West. This is a huge betrayal that Glinda has to endure, and as Fox explained further, she said this choice came down to one thing: all three characters had to stay likable.

As Dana Fox put it, a too-passionate moment with Glinda — his arranged fiancée — would muddy the waters for Fiyero's motivations. "It was like a feeling that he really did love her, which he does care about Glinda a lot, don't get me wrong. But he likes her in a different way," Fox explained. 

"But this scene was too romantic, so it was like, 'Oh, we can't know that because then our brains will explode when he doesn't choose her in the end. And then we'll hate Elphaba, Glinda, and Fiyero," she continued. "So, I think it was a good cut because it was too adorable that you simply couldn't handle it." Per Fox's point, there is no on-screen kiss between the engaged couple, but there's an entire love scene between Elphaba and Fiyero (when they sing the powerhouse duet "As Long As You're Mine").

Still, Fox's interview (perhaps unintentionally) pinpoints another reason that a major kiss between Fiyero and Glinda would have been really weird, which is that the main focus of "Wicked" is the bond between Glinda and Elphaba. To that point, even though "Wicked: For Good" ends with Fiyero and Elphaba leaving Oz (for good) with Glinda left behind, the final shot of the movie is of Glinda and Elphaba during an intimate moment (Glinda is whispering into Elphaba's ear in a flashback, echoing the Broadway's memorable poster).

Fox confirmed that this moment was vital. "The whisper in the script was always the last moment in the many written drafts," she said before admitting that she "loves" Elphaba and Glinda and "[wants] them to be together." Frankly, that's clear in the movie; Fiyero is Elphaba's love interest, but Glinda is her love.

Notably, Fiyero and Elphaba sing a song about wanting to be together and then consummate their relationship, but they don't confess their love directly. Glinda and Elphaba do tell each other "I love you" in the film's final moments before Elphaba fakes her own death and runs away with Fiyero. Dana Fox does say, in the Deadline interview, that the relationship between Glinda and Elphaba was paramount, simply proving my point:

"Everything we did was about their friendship because the North Star of our development on the film was constantly saying, 'It's about the girls, stupid.' We literally had a quote on all our computers that said that. And so, anytime we were like, 'It's about the animals, but how are the animals also about the girls?' or 'How is Fiyero about the girls?' or 'How is Nessa [Elphaba's sister played by Marissa Bode] about Elphaba?' It was always about figuring out how to make any interaction lead back to them."

Not only that, but Fox thinks that, if more "Wicked" movies end up coming to fruition, Elphaba and Glinda should reunite. "I mean, to me, the moment when Elphaba says in voiceover, 'I know she can never know that we're alive.' I was like, somebody feels like they're asking to find out that they are alive at some point," she admitted of Elphaba, saying Glinda must believe she's dead. "That feels really like, 'Hello.' That's spicy to me. I love the idea that we could meet up with them again someday." If there is a sequel, here's my humble suggestion with the utmost due respect to Jonathan Bailey: sideline Fiyero and let the girls hang out for the entire run time.

"Wicked: For Good" is in theaters now.