Ever since the film adaptation of Wicked debuted, fans have been debating: just who, exactly, is playing Dorothy? The hero of The Wizard Of Oz – ruby slippers, “no place like home”, little dog too; you know the one – was briefly glimpsed in the opening suite of the first film in Jon M. Chu’s two-part adaptation. And, no spoilers, but anyone familiar with Act 2 of the stage play will know that the events of follow-up film Wicked: For Good will take audiences into Wizard Of Oz territory. Just check out the above exclusive image, of a very familiar Kansas farmhouse crashed in Munchkinland.
So then: who plays Dorothy? The answer might not be as straightforward as you expect. While her presence makes a big impact in For Good, Dorothy won’t exactly be a character in the film – seen largely from a distance, or from behind. “I think that’s such a wonderful thing to do,” Cynthia Erivo tells Empire in our Wicked: For Good issue, “because then everyone gets to keep the Dorothy that they know.”
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Still, Dorothy’s existence will mean major things for both Elphaba and Glinda – who, as Ariana Grande tells Empire, doesn’t exactly give the farmgirl the most direct route to her destination in telling her to follow the yellow brick road. “I love the little bit of shadiness that Glinda has towards Dorothy,” she laughs. “There’s a lot going on, and she doesn’t really have time to deal with this. She could have told her to take the Emerald City train! But she didn’t. That’s a little shady, Glinda! So I leaned all the way into Glinda sort of having an eye roll for Dorothy whenever she has to deal with her.” You could say that Dorothy’s not so pop-u-lar.