Trivia

• Right at the start, the Universal logo featured is a black and white, vintage version — identical to the one used in 1939, the same year that The Wizard of Oz came out. The screen also switches from black and white to color, just like The Wizard of Oz famously did.
• They planted and grew 9 million tulips to be part of the landscape for Munchkinland. In the musical, Munchkins are in charge of collecting color from the tulip field, so having real patches of flowers instead of CGI'ing them in afterwards was important.
• “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and the instrumental "Miss Gulch” from The Wizard of Oz can be heard subtly interwoven within the opening song, “No One Mourns the Wicked.”
• Cynthia Erivo wore prosthetic ears throughout the entire movie while playing Elphaba. Her ears are normally covered in piercings, so instead of taking them all out, she wore fitted coverings to hide everything completely.
• It took upwards of four hours each morning to paint Cynthia's body that signature shade of green. Depending on her costume for the day and how much of her skin needed to be visible (like, if they only needed to cover her head, neck, and hands), they could get that timing down to 2 hours and 45 minutes.
• Hot air balloons are seen numerous times throughout the film — a reference to the fact that The Wizard is famous for traveling by them. The balloons are used to deliver invitations to meet The Wizard, branded all over the Emerald City, and used by Glinda and Elphaba in a bid to escape toward the end.
• Oscar-nominated costume designer Paul Tazewell also had an incredibly tough job. To prevent the green makeup from continuously staining all of Cynthia's costumes, he created a colored skin-suit and also lined Cynthia's outfits with dyed fabrics. This helped give the effect that her character was completely green without having to 1. paint her entire body, and 2. color-contaminate costumes, which would ruin the shot.
• The song “For Good,” which plays while Glinda and Elphaba reflect on their friendship, can be heard subtly throughout the film during moments of connection between the pair — including during “No One Mourns the Wicked,” “Dancing Through Life,” “Popular,” and “Defying Gravity.”
• The movie sets also doubled as a recording studio, and that's because Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo insisted on singing live while filming, rather than relying on pre-recordings. According to Ariana, sticking to a musical track would have been too limiting and wouldn't have let them improvise or try new things. It also would have prevented more of an "emotional connection" between the characters, actors, and music. But, more importantly, they wanted to sing live "in solidarity with the women on Broadway who've done this eight shows a week."
• Elphaba and Fiyero rescue the young lion cub, who eventually becomes the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. While doing so, Elphaba cycles on a bike with the cub in the basket, which is reminiscent of the original Wizard of Oz Wicked Witch's human counterpart, Almira Gulch, cycling away with Dorothy's pet Toto.
• Ariana Grande's "bubble" dress (which is worn as Glinda floats down from the sky) was a modernized interpretation of the iconic dress from The Wizard of Oz. It was originally pure pink, but the finished product ended up having rainbow undertones. Her crown is also designed as a series of circular bubbles that are stacked on top of each other.
• The train that transports Elphaba and Glinda to the Emerald City is actually real. It was custom-built for the film, weighed 16 tons, and took two days to move.
• The Wicked novel came out in 1995, and within a week of its release, Whoopi Goldberg tried buying the rights so she could turn it into a movie herself. Laurie Metcalf and Claire Danes were also interested at one point, too.
• During the song “A Sentimental Man,” the Wizard throws a wooden house through the air, a direct reference to Dorothy's house flying in the tornado.
• There are a number of iconic cameos within “One Short Day.” Not only do writers Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz appear, but OG Wicked stars Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel make iconic features — and they even adopt some of the most memorable poses from the musical.