This Pride Month, we continue to celebrate the representation of LGBTQ+ people in media here on CinemaBlend as the month itself was created as a way to commemorate the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots. Since the first Wicked: For Good trailer finally dropped during the first week of June, it’s a great time to talk about the lasting impact of the musical’s connection to the queer community.
From its roots in The Wizard of Oz to the coming release of Wicked: For Good this November, the cultural phenomenon has long found a deep connection with queer people. Let’s get into it, because it’s an important piece of its legacy.
The Wizard Of Oz Has Long Been Thought Of As Queer-Coded
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There’s also the piece that Judy Garland is hailed as a gay icon, too. LGBTQ+ scholar Nathaniel Frank said (via EW) because she “compared herself to a wind-up doll, manufactured by adults for their entertainment” and was “was never able to really be herself. And yet, when she performed, she exhibited this level of authentic emotion,” she developed such a prominent following of gay fans who could identify with her struggles, and came in droves to support her during her career.
Them in 2024:
That was intentional, and it was modest and restrained and refined in such a way that one could imagine that one of those two young women had felt more than the other and had not wanted to say it. Or perhaps because a novelist can’t write every scene, perhaps when the lights were out and the novelist was out having a smoke in the back alley, the girls had sex in the bed on the way to the Emerald City. I wanted to propose this possibility, but I did not want to make a declarative statement about.
In the book itself, Elphaba and Glinda never get into an official relationship together, but there’s absolutely some romantic tension between the pair throughout in a way that could be seen as a romance for those who want to ship them, or a complex friendship for those who want to see it too. As Maguire shared in the above statement, he didn’t want to make a “declarative statement” about their relationship, and so he didn’t. This certainly carries over to the musical and the movie, though there is never a kiss in the musical from Stephen Schwartz.
cast of the Wicked movies, the production has stayed true to the queer history of the title by casting predominantly LGBTQ+ actors in many of the main roles. Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba), Jonathan Bailey (Fiyero). Marissa Bode (Nessarose), Bowen Yang (Pfannee) and Bronwyn James (ShenShen) are all queer actors.
So, there’s no doubt The Wizard of Oz and Wicked belong to the LGBTQ+ community, and have connected so deeply to the queer community for years. But perhaps what sets it apart from other more niche new LGBTQ+ movies is that the beauty of the Wonderful World of Oz is how it’s made to appeal to everyone. Whether you are a gay person who loves the Glinda/Elphaba relationship, or someone with no ties whatsoever to this context, it’s clearly been made for anyone to enjoy and feel connected, and will continue to for generations to come. We can’t wait for Wicked: For Good, which is part of the 2025 movie release calendar to hit theaters on November 21.