Wicked director Jon M. Chu reveals why they cut Broadway show’s most iconic line

Wicked is currently getting praise for granting the wishes of even the biggest musical fans, but those in the know will have caught that Glinda’s biggest line from the show isn’t in the adaptation.

With Wicked’s box office currently making it one of the highest-grossing openings for a Broadway adaptation, it’s clear the new movie is already a success.

Rave reviews have been hyping the on-screen translations of the show’s biggest moments, from ‘Defying Gravity’ to ‘The Wizard and I’. But some iconic Broadway moments were cut from the final product, with director Jon M. Chu explaining why it simply wasn’t possible to include everything.

“When you don’t have a live audience to play off, some of the comedy doesn’t quite work,” Chu said [via Variety]. “I remember when Ari read that we didn’t have the line ‘the Wizard will see you now!’ There was a reason for it; they were more progressed in the geography.

“In rehearsals, we didn’t have it and every time that moment would happen, they would sing it anyway. Ari was like, ‘I promise you, we have to have it.’ So I was like, ‘OK, let me figure it out.’ We built it in so there are two entrances now, but it was worth it.”

Glinda’s most famous line didn’t work in the Wicked movie

One of the most notable missing moments from the film comes in the opening scene, when Glinda descends upon the people of Munchkinland in a bubble.

In the original dialog, Glinda says, “It’s good to see me, isn’t it? …No need to answer. That’s rhetorical.” However, the movie doesn’t include the second half of that sentence, which is widely considered to be one of Glinda’s most memorable moments.

As Chu explained: “In the movie when she said the line, the joke didn’t land. Not because of the way she performed it. But because there’s no audience to give the feedback for it.

“We put fake Ozian reactions, but it was too meta, too early. That was a scary one to cut because it’s like a Bible line.”

Wicked is currently playing in theaters worldwide. For more, find out why Wicked’s best scene accidentally copied Spider-Man, when to pee during Wicked, and how Fiyero has a big connection to The Wizard of Oz after Wicked.