Wicked, the magical movie musical phenomenon that has been taking the internet by storm for the past two months, is finally available on digital platforms. So now you can try to belt Cynthia Erivo’s “Defying Gravity” battle cry from the comfort of your own home. The digital version of the movie includes some special features like commentary from Erivo and co-lead Ariana Grande, behind-the-scenes interviews, and a handful of deleted scenes. Wicked is already a long movie, running at two hours and 40 minutes, but after seeing some of the moments that were cut fans are asking if it would really have been so bad if the film had been a few minutes longer.
Some of these deleted scenes were fine to cut. One includes Grande’s character, Glinda the Good Witch, meeting her cronies Pfannee and ShenShen, and while it’s nice to give those characters a little more screen time, they’re mostly bit players in the grand scheme of things. The ones that feel like they would have added a lot of meat to the film include Erivo as Elphaba taking just a few minutes to flesh out her ties to Glinda and her sister’s boyfriend Boq.
Elphaba and Glinda’s friendship is the lifeblood of both the film and stage versions of Wicked, and while there’s a lot of time spent on their enemies-to-friends arc, a few gaps could’ve been filled. The deleted scene “Elphaba’s Promise” is only two minutes long but adds a great deal to the characters’ complicated relationship. This small interaction between the two as they study magic addresses the weird lack of acknowledging the point earlier in the film when Elphaba slips away with Glinda’s boyfriend Fiyero to save a captured lion cub. Here, we see Glinda ask why Elphaba didn’t ask her for help, to which Elphaba apologizes and says she won’t leave her behind again. In the final film, the two never really have a conversation about what happened. This would have also punctuated the moment later when Elphaba brings Glinda along with her to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard. Seeing that this scene was shot and ready to go makes it a puzzling omission. Yes, yes, you’ve gotta cut some things for time, but you’re telling me the duo fucking about with a busted hot air balloon in the last 20 minutes was more valuable than them fleshing out their relationship?
Another cut interaction that would have added a lot to the movie is one between Elphaba and Ethan Slater’s Boq. The munchkin is the boyfriend of Elphaba’s sister Nessarose, but he secretly harbors feelings for Glinda. Well, it’s a secret to Nessarose, at least. In “Boq & Elphaba talk,” the Witch of the West talks with Boq about their hopes and dreams and how they’re both hopelessly in love with two unavailable people. When Elphaba is unwilling to admit she has feelings for Fiyero, Boq ends the chat with a banger of a line: “I’m sorry, I misunderstood. I thought we were being honest.” Tea clocked.
Without spoiling anything for those who don’t know anything about Wicked’s second act—which will make up the sequel movie Wicked: For Good on November 21—Boq is a pretty important character in what’s to come. Though the first film rightfully focuses on Elphaba and Glinda, its ensemble cast is about to go through some transformative experiences in the second film, and giving them just a little bit more time could have gone a long way. At least we have these scenes available to view in the special features. Even if they weren’t in the final cut, you can pretty much consider them canon because they slot nicely into the movie we got.
