I couldn’t be happier about how Wicked: For Good turned out, and based on the reactions from critics, our own Wicked 2 review and the smash box office success already, I’m not alone in that feeling. Still, it’s always fun to learn the ways in which the movie changed throughout production. For example, the co-writer of the Wicked sequel has revealed one “too passionate” moment between Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey’s Glinda and Fiyero was cut. SPOILERS AHEAD.
As revealed early in For Good, Glinda and Fiyero get engaged to be married, but it’s not necessarily out of true love between the pair. In the movie, The Wizard, Glinda and Madame Morrible “surprise” Fiyero with the news of the arrangement in front of a crowd. Here’s what Dana Fox told Deadline:
There was a scene between Fiyero and Glinda that we cut in which they kissed; it was romantic and beautiful, but a little too passionate. Seeing that made it too hard to watch him make the choice he makes to be with Elphaba and made it too hard to make it OK that Elphaba ran off with him. It was too real that he and Glinda were actually feeling something together.
Given the particular charm of Jonathan Bailey (he just became People’s Sexiest Man Alive), it doesn’t surprise me that he’s practically incapable of filming an awkward kissing scene. During the original engagement scene, Fiyero and Glinda were going to share a smooch, but after the scene was in the can, the filmmakers decided to take the moment out. As Fox explained:
It was like a feeling that he really did love her, which he does care about Glinda a lot, don’t get me wrong. But he likes her in a different way. But this scene was too romantic, so it was like, ‘Oh, we can’t know that because then our brains will explode when he doesn’t choose her in the end. And then we’ll hate Elphaba, Glinda and Fiyero.’ So, I think it was a good cut because it was too adorable that you simply couldn’t handle it.
Rather than seeing Fiyero kissing with Glinda and Elphaba, the Wicked filmmakers decided to only keep the romance between Fiyero and Elphaba during the “As Long As You Love Me” song. It totally makes sense that the audience might have turned on Fiyero, and not liked him as much if he was seen being physically affectionate with both women.
That’s especially the case given the way they are describing how the scene turned out. As Dana Fox shared, it was a “good cut” and benefitted the movie in the end not to have it in the movie.
At first, Glinda is understandably not very happy when Fiyero goes with Elphaba when she crashes their wedding, However, in the end she realizes that he really loves Elphaba, and ultimately makes up with Elphaba in particular.
So when Fiyero chooses Elphaba, the audience doesn’t feel too betrayed by Fiyero because it doesn’t seem like he was too into Glinda to begin with. Of course, Elphaba’s romance has some complications of its own when he makes his terrifying transformation as Scarecrow (which involved hours of makeup) and ultimately ends up running away with Elphaba, whom everyone believes to be dead by the end of the movie.
We do have to wonder if Glinda does actually think her friends to actually be dead or not. Director Jon M. Chu said that he has a “definitive idea” in his head, but he wants the audience to “interpret it how they want to.” It’ll be interesting to rewatch the “Thank Goodness” scene knowing the kiss that could have been.