If ‘Wicked’ Was Produced in the 1990s: Innovative Casting Decisions & Other Fascinating Information

Before Wicked became the Broadway phenomenon we know today, there were serious discussions in Hollywood about adapting the 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire into a film. This potential adaptation would have been vastly different from the musical that eventually took the stage.

According to a Vanity Fair report, many big names were attached to the movie in the 1990s, with early casting ideas for the iconic roles of Elphaba and Glinda. Claire Danes, Demi Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nicole Kidman, and Whoopi Goldberg were among the actresses considered for these roles. The project also had a director interested in tackling it, but despite these exciting early moves, the plans for a film adaptation eventually fell through.

Instead, the decision was made to turn the book into a stage musical, which became a massive hit on Broadway. The report goes on to explore why the movie plans were abandoned and how the musical came to be.

You can find all of the fascinating details in the full Vanity Fair article, which provides an inside look at the early days of Wicked‘s journey to becoming the cultural phenomenon it is today.