'The Wizard of Oz' Does Have a Place in the Timeline of the 'Wicked' Movie

Both The Wizard of Oz and Wicked began as books. And yes, they take place in the same world. Never mind the whole "it was all a dream" thing at the end of The Wizard of Oz with Dorothy's wonder about what was real and what wasn't. In the world of Wicked, Oz is real and so are the good and bad witches. So, does The Wizard of Oz take place in Wicked?

If you're asking if the actual events of the original movie take place within the story that is presented in Wicked as a book, musical production, and musical film, the answer is yes. But what about the actual movie? One user on TikTok explained in detail what to expect about how these two stories collide in the Wicked film.

According to a user on TikTok by the name of Abbey Bonadies, the events of The Wizard of Oz do happen "within the timeline of Wicked." But it's not a situation where the beginning of Dorothy's story happens right at the end of Wicked. Instead, according to Abbey, the events of The Wizard of Oz only last a couple of weeks in Wicked in the grand scheme of things.

"The story of Wicked actually starts here," Abbey explains in her video, in reference to when Dorothy melts the Wicked Witch of the West at the end of The Wizard of Oz. "The townspeople are celebrating her death and they are greeted by Glinda the Good Witch, who is then prompted to tell the story about how her and Elphaba [the Wicked Witch of the West] knew each other."

In other iterations of Wicked, and presumably the movie starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, Glinda tells the story about how Elphaba became green and how her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, was the favorite daughter in the family. It wasn't totally totally clear ahead of its premiere if the Wicked movie follows this storytelling from Glinda, but it fans expected it to include a small portion of the events of The Wizard of Oz.

Apparently, there is just too much lore and too much story of the Land of Oz to fit into one movie. Even before Wicked was released in theaters, there was a planned second film called Wicked Part Two. Whether dedicated Wicked fans wanted this or they would have preferred to have everything in one long film depends on who you ask, though.

In April 2022, director Jon M. Chu shared on X that "it became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to wrestle the story of Wicked into a single film without doing some real damage to it" after production began.

He added in a long statement about the future of the films, "With more space, we can tell the story of Wicked as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys of these beloved characters."