The 1990s ‘Wicked’ Movie That Almost Got Made Would Have Killed the Franchise Before It Started

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The final movie in the adaptation of the beloved musical Wicked, titled Wicked: For Good, is now in theaters. The films split the original two-act musical into two separate movies. The first film, released in 2024, was a huge success with both critics and audiences, earning 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It stayed true to the spirit of the original Wicked musical, which debuted on Broadway twenty years ago. However, before these films and even before the stage show, there was an earlier attempt to bring the story of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West to the big screen in the 1990s, following the book’s publication.

It’s hard to picture Wicked without its famous songs, but that almost became reality. Before it became a Broadway musical, several actresses, including Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, and Salma Hayek, attempted to turn the story into a movie. If that had happened, Wicked might not be the beloved story we know today – it could have been a minor part of pop culture instead of a huge success.

Demi Moore’s Attempt to Adapt the Original ‘Wicked’ Novel


Paramount Pictures

Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, reimagines The Wizard of Oz through the eyes of the Wicked Witch, renamed Elphaba. The book delves into how stories create villains and examines themes of terrorism and propaganda within the fantastical world of Oz, which is secretly controlled by a strict, oppressive government. Wicked was immediately popular and quickly became a sought-after property for film adaptation.

Demi Moore’s production company, Moving Pictures, secured the rights to make a film based on Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West at Universal Pictures. They won the rights over Whoopi Goldberg, who also wanted to adapt the novel as she was a fan. Other actresses who considered bringing Wicked to the screen included Claire Danes, Laurie Metcalf, and Salma Hayek, who later tried to develop it as a television miniseries in the 2010s.

Demi Moore was originally cast as Elphaba, a role she was taking on after appearing in hit movies like Ghost, A Few Good Men, and Indecent Proposal. However, she had also recently starred in some films that weren’t as successful, such as The Scarlet Letter and Striptease. Around this time, Marc Platt and Suzanne Todd, who would eventually produce the Wicked movie, became involved. Michelle Pfeiffer, Emma Thompson, and Nicole Kidman were all considered for the role of Glinda. Linda Wooverton, known for her work on Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, was brought in to write the screenplay, and Robert Zemeckis, the director of Back to the Future and Forrest Gump, was interested in directing. Wooverton’s script was much closer in tone to the original, darker source material than the ultimately lighter musical version.

Troubles With the Movie Eventually Led to the Musical


Universal Pictures

Stephen Schwartz, the creator of the musical, also saw the potential in adapting Wicked. Before the stage version, Linda Woovertoon, known for her work on Disney animated films, wanted to turn Wicked into a movie musical. At the same time, Schwartz was writing lyrics for Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which featured Demi Moore as Esmeralda. Although Moore acted in the role, Heidi Mollenhauer actually provided the singing voice for Esmeralda’s song, “God Help the Outcast.”

By 1998, Marc Platt, the head of production at Universal Pictures, was persuaded by Schwartz to put a movie adaptation on hold. Schwartz then proposed creating a stage musical, hoping a successful run could lead to a film version later on – and he was right. Wicked debuted on Broadway in 2003 and became a massive hit, running for years and featuring now-famous songs. Universal finally began working on a film adaptation in 2011, which was released in 2024. Interestingly, Cynthia Erivo, who starred in the film, received a Best Actress nomination in the same year as Demi Moore, who was originally slated to play Elphaba decades earlier and was nominated for The Substance.

Wicked As We Know It Today Might Not Exist


Universal Pictures

It’s interesting to imagine a Wicked movie that stayed closer to the original book. What would it have looked like? Fantasy films in the 1990s were pretty hit-or-miss, and the genre didn’t really become popular again until 2001, when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring were both released.

If Wicked had been presented as a grand, book-based adaptation – like Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Interview with the Vampire – would it have been marketed differently? Or would it have been positioned as a dramatic reimagining of The Wizard of Oz, similar to how Hook functioned as a sequel to Peter Pan, relying on the familiar look of the Disney animated movie? It would have been a very different take than the stage musical or the recent films. That isn’t necessarily a negative, but it’s difficult to imagine what we might have missed if the movie had taken that path.

It’s hard to know if a Demi Moore film version of Wicked would have helped or hurt the musical. Broadway has seen many musicals adapted from movies – think Beetlejuice or Mean Girls. The Lion King opened on Broadway three years after its film release, so Wicked the musical could still have debuted in 2003 even if a movie version had come out in the 90s. However, a poorly made film could have turned audiences off the story, potentially preventing the musical from happening at all. After all, what is Wicked without the iconic song “Defying Gravity”?

While the 1995 novel is well-regarded, the musical version has become far more popular. Though the musical doesn’t explore the novel’s themes with the same depth, it does give the characters – especially Elphaba and Glinda – much more personality and complexity. The choices to make Boq the Tin Man and Fiyero the Scarecrow might feel a bit forced due to the constraints of a stage show, but ultimately these changes add to the story, giving those characters a more meaningful and personal connection to the overall plot.

It’s possible that Wicked wouldn’t be as beloved today if the initial plans to make a movie had succeeded. The musical’s success actually sparked a series of Wicked novels, starting with Son of a Witch in 2005, just two years after the Broadway show opened. This has grown into a long-running book series. Ultimately, it’s a good thing the movie never happened, because the musical has been enchanting audiences for over two decades and continues to be popular—and now, there are even films in the works.

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2025-11-27 01:20