Eight production secrets from behind the scenes of Wicked: For Good

Wicked: For Good is finally in cinemas, providing an epic conclusion to the beloved story of the Witches of Oz.

Aside from the musical accompaniment and impressive costumes, what makes both Wicked movies so striking is their sets, from the famous Yellow Brick Road to The Emerald City, all of which were deeply thought out in order to bring them to life.

Ahead of the release of Wicked: For Good, RadioTimes.com sat down with the movie's production designer, Nathan Crowley, who shared how he and his team were able to make a truly extravagant set, bringing Oz to life in cinemas and homes worldwide.

Before you transport yourself to Oz (or after), read on to learn more about just how the sets came together for both movies.

1. Wicked: For Good features a more epic set

The set of Wicked was impressive, even if just Shiz University and The Emerald City were singled out, yet Crowley explained For Good is "much more epic".

He told RadioTimes.com: "The second one is much more epic… we have to define Oz as a much bigger place It's telling a much bigger story in For Good."

2. The introduction of three towers in The Emerald City

In the first movie, just The Wizard's Tower was seen, but For Good features two more to show Madame Morrible and Glinda's sudden power in Oz.

Crowley said: "I really enjoy the three towers. They represent stories. The Wizard's Tower, which we saw in the first film for Defying Gravity. Then we have Madame Morrible's tower, which is the propaganda tower. And then we have Glinda's tower."

3. Glinda's apartment was one of the most complicated sets to build

The only home of Glinda's shown in the first film is her university room she shares with Elphaba, but in For Good, audiences will get a closer look at her apartment, which Crowley explained needed "a dual purpose".

"Design wise, we needed to build out Glinda's apartment, but it also had a dual purpose – because it's a very important story point that she's giving up all this privilege," he shared.

"She's looking at her reflection and not liking what she sees. She's having a conversation with herself using mirrors. So Jon [M Chu] wanted to really use mirrors to question who she was and what she has to give up. Mirrors is hard… it's probably one of the most complicated sets we've built."

4. Dorothy's farmhouse couldn't be toyed with too much

Dorothy's farmhouse is shown in For Good, but not much could be changed from the original.

"Dorothy's house is a slice of Americana," Crowley explained. "I know it belongs in Andrew Wyeth paintings. I know its Midwestern. So I know there's a language there that I can't veer off, and you shouldn't veer off, because we have to tell you the most famous flying house... we have to land that visually without question."

5. Finding the right shade of yellow for the Yellow Brick Road

Perhaps one of the most well-known sets in cinema is the Yellow Brick Road, and it was important the production design team had just the right shade to bring it to life.

Crowley told RadioTimes.com: "Finding the yellow [was difficult] because we're inside and we're on location with it, because we're doing things practically. So the yellow on the sound stage is slightly different to yellow out on location, because sunlight [is different] to stage light. We have to use different glazes and different yellows, and it's a lot of trial and error. And we sat and looked at enormous amount of yellows!"

6. There were actually 10 million tulips planted

In the first Wicked movie, a tulip field near King's Lynn in Norfolk was featured as a backdrop to Munchkinland, with a whopping nine million bloomed for the blockbuster.

Except, actually 10 million were planted!

Crowley revealed: "We had to hide the yellow tulips in the field next door – three fields over. We actually planted 10 million tulips, nine coloured and one giant field of yellows."

7. Building Kiamo Ko

Kiamo Ko is a large castle that is home to Elphaba, and is where she has her final stand-off with Dorothy in the original novels.

Speaking of bringing that to life, Crowley said: "I knew I wanted to make the castle into a floating castle. So how do you put that into Ozian architecture and use that fantasy trope of the castles in the sky? What's our version of that? We found the battlements and the fact we could levitate the top to the base and really get away with it."

8. Elphaba's lair was handwoven

Elphaba's lair is another new location shown in For Good, and a lot of detail went into creating the Winky forest where she resides.

"When we get to Elphaba's lair, we understand that the mother tree of the Ozian and Winky forests in the West are so old and twisted, they're holding her like a piece of sculpture," Crowley explained.

"We actually weaved that set out of branches. My greens department brought all this flexible wood, we piled tons of it, and they slowly wove it together and twisted it. It was really down to about four or five weavers who wove that whole set!"

Wicked: For Good is out in UK cinemas now.

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