The Wizard of Oz was the first film I ever watched start to finish, around the age of two. In the years following, I would, I’m told, watch it on repeat. Metro Goldwyn-Mayer’s roaring lion, and the sepia serif title credits; a pigtailed Judy Garland holding on to a rusty hay rake; the brown house landing in Oz, its door opening to reveal Technicolor flowers and bright yellow brick: these are some of my very earliest memories. And I’m not alone. They feel primordial, universal, almost eternal.
In the 86 years since The Wizard of Oz first arrived on screens, there have been countless adaptations, spin-offs, and reimaginings. The latest of these is Jon M Chu’s Wicked: For Good. Reviews have been lukewarm, but the film, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, is nonetheless tipped to have the biggest-ever opening for a Broadway musical film adaptation. For Good is a Wizard of Oz adaptation in a second-cousin sort of way – the second part of a film version of a stage musical adaptation of a novel, which is arguably a spin-off of a film, which itself is the spin-off of the original book series and broadway musical. We are in Wizard of Oz-ception.
