An insider’s look at ‘Wicked’s’ wondrous, gravity-defying set

Operatic turns by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Sing-along songs (“Popular!” “Defying Gravity!”) for fans of the stage-to-screen adaptation. Tour-de-force direction by Crazy rich Asians‘ Jon M. Chu. Choose your pleasure: the movie Evil has something for every taste.

But for design fans, the true star of the budding blockbuster Evil are the eye-catching sets. With a reported budget of $150 million, no expense was spared in conjuring visual backdrops ranging from Munchkinland to the Emerald City.

“I’ve done a lot of very big films,” says production director Nathan Crowley, a Briton who also worked on Interstellar and The Dark Knightand who created the sets on three massive backlots in the English countryside. “But this was the biggest film I’ve ever made in my life.”

Based on author Gregory Maguire’s revisionist retelling of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Evil— which was first turned from a book into a long-running Broadway musical — tries to bring a sense of humanity (and a backstory) to one of the greatest villains in storybook history: The Wicked Witch of the West. Adapting the story to film, Crowley looked to classic Americana—from the endless fields and skies of the Great Plains, which inspired the landscape around Oz, to the modernist architecture of Chicago, the catalyst for the awe-inspiring Emerald City. “It’s an American adventure,” says Crowley, who studied architecture before turning to film design.

The designer says Chu, the director, set the bar for the film’s visuals. “He wanted it to be wonderful, magical and colorful,” he says. “He doesn’t say how it should look, he just makes you push it and push it to the edge of insanity. And I love that he doubles down like that.”

Here, the designer gives an inside look at how he created the film’s jaw-dropping set.

Munchkinland

The film opens with Munchkinland – “a living tapestry woven of sunshine and tulips”, as Crowley describes it. He built it on a backdrop that spanned 6.8 acres in the British countryside. The camera pans over fields planted in a rainbow of tulips—nine million in all, grown for production by a local flower farmer—then arrives at a village with a Middle Earth feel. Here, the Munchkins – including Bok Woodsman (Ethan Slater), the lovelorn character with his heart set on Grande’s Glinda – happily celebrate the Wicked Witch’s death. That is, before the film goes back in time to reveal how the witch – once a misunderstood, green-skinned child named Elphaba – grew up to be so terrifying.

Crowley designed the village around a cluster of stucco houses with green roofs shaped like witches’ hats. Munchkins are farmers who grow tulips for colorful dyes. “The central village is a living kaleidoscope, houses painted in riotous hues and doors adorned with intricate tulip carvings,” says the designer. “The marketplace overflows with bolts of colored fabric, skeins of yarn and maybe even tulip-infused treats. It’s a celebration of color!”

Shiz University

Part Venetian palazzo, part Hogwarts and part Harvard, Wicked’s Shiz University is where the best students in Oz – including witches-in-training Elphaba and Glinda – go for their magical education. Here they sharpen their wizarding skills and learn cutting-edge science from professors such as Dr. Dillamond, a wise but haunted goat played by Peter Dinklage. “Shiz was one of my favorite sets,” says Crowley. “It was huge.”

When Oz existed before animals were subjugated to humans, there was no such thing as a horse-drawn carriage. Students entered Shiz by boat, necessitating the need for a water entry kit with functional boat docks. A massive arch leads to a Gothic-style structure built around a courtyard. This was inspired by the monumental arch designs for Chicago’s neoclassical White City, built for 1893 Columbian Exposition.

A highlight is the Shiz Library, a vaulted and arched space that hosts a spectacular Fred Astaire-like dance scene, “Dancing Through Life,” with Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey). “We came up with a design with giant, rotating bookshelves,” says Crowley.

Emerald City Express

Since the story hinges on getting Elphaba and Glinda from Shiz to the Emerald City in “One Short Day,” the designers had to come up with a suitable transportation option—one that felt in line with the wizard’s ability for advanced technology. The solution was a train that does not run on steam, but on clockwork. “I’ve always been fascinated by the intricate, beautiful mechanical figures – automata – built during the reign of Louis XV,” says Crowley. He was also inspired by the illusionist and watchmaker Jean-Eugene Robert Houdins mechanical orange tree.

The resulting 106-foot train is a real locomotive that runs the length of a field planted with barley in an echo of the American heartland. “It’s reminiscent of Andrew Wyeth’s paintings or the film Days of Heaven“, he adds. “If you look at American westerns, it tends to be cities or big, flat landscapes. That’s the Americana of it all.”

The Emerald City

A home for a wizard should be awe-inspiring, and Oz’s Emerald City is just that and more. Here Crowley again drew inspiration from Chicago’s White City. The result combines neoclassical architecture with the flourishing of Art Nouveau. “This wasn’t just any town,” he says. “This was Oz, a land of fantastic whims…a dream conjured by a powerful wizard. It was to rise from the landscape like a singular emerald jewel, a profile etched in the memory of every Ozian, a myth they whispered about with longing. Truly difficult business!”

The exterior is designed digitally with CGI. “Detailed illustrations were paramount, capturing every curve, every emerald facet of this stunning metropolis,” he says. This was joined by a built set of structures that rose almost 45 feet in height. The “Wizamania” scene culminates in a dance scene orchestrated around a massive fountain that is a “blooming marvel that rotates and unfolds like a giant flower.”

Wizard’s Palace

As Elphaba and Glinda enter the Great Hall of the Wizard’s Palace, they pass through a towering room filled with translucent green towers and huge circular windows. Much of this was built for the film. “We have to give the actors enough sets to help them get into character,” says Crowley. “With the great hall, they needed to feel intimidated. They have to meet the wizard. I should feel intimidating. And then you enter the throne room and there’s a giant mechanical head. It’s a 20-foot-tall mechanical automaton built with hydraulics and it moves and comes through the curtains. And there’s a puppeteer that moves the head. It’s amazing to see it come to life.

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