Why Iconic Wicked Lines Was Cut From The Movie

Evil is set to set theater-loving hearts aflutter, but there will be a few core differences from stage to screen.

This post has spoilers Evil.

Eviladapted from the Broadway show of the same name, which was inspired by Gregory Maguires novel, cuts a few key lines from the stage show, including “The wizard wants to see you now” and “We’re running late for Wizomania.” It turns out, director Jon M. Chu had good reason to leave those parts of the dialogue out of the final script.

“When you don’t have a live audience to play off of, some of the comedy doesn’t quite work,” Chu, 45, told Black in an interview published on Saturday 23 November. “I remember when (Ariana Grande) read that we didn’t have the line ‘The wizard wants to see you now!’ There was a reason for that; they were more advanced in geography.”

He added: “In rehearsals, we didn’t have it, and every time that moment would happen, they would sing it anyway. Ari was like, ‘I promise you, we’re going to have it.’ So I thought, ‘OK, let me figure it out.’

Related: The shocking ‘Wicked’ (Spoiler) moment that will have OG fans freaking out

Just a short day in the Emerald City and Elphaba and Galinda are already meeting some special characters. This post continues spoilers for Wicked. Wicked, an adaptation of the popular Broadway musical of the same name, hit theaters on Friday, November 22, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as a pair of witches who wanted a (…)

Evil hit theaters on Friday, November 22 and tells the story of how the iconic witches from The Wizard of OzThe Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the North originally met as roommates at Shiz University. Grande, 31, plays good witch Galinda/Glinda, while Cynthia Erivo puts on the evil Elphaba’s cloak.

Chu also tried to stick with Galinda/Glinda’s line “It’s good to see me, isn’t it? No need to answer. It’s rhetorical.” However, the joke didn’t hit as well when Grande said it on camera without a live audience.

“The joke didn’t land. Not because of the way she delivered it, but because there’s no audience to give feedback for it,” Chu explained. “We put in fake Ozian reactions, but it was too meta, too early. It was scary to cut, because it’s like a line from the Bible.”

The Evil out now is only part one. A follow-up hits theaters next year on November 21, 2025.

“I’d say because I (already) cut part 2, (it’s) a doozy. You get the meat,” Chu teased Black. “I didn’t know the context of where we would be in society right now. It becomes eight times more relevant than before when you’re talking about truth and consequences of making the right or wrong choices. It’s intense.”

Evil part 1 is now in the cinema.