‘Wicked’ Color Grading Aims To Paint ‘A Real Place’

Wicked director Jon M. Chu explained his approach to the sweeping musical’s color grading, after some fans online lamented that the film did not contain the same technicolor prowess present in the original 1939 The Wizard of Oz.

In a recent interview with Canadian outlet The Globe and Mail, the Crazy Rich Asians helmer was asked about his approach to the pink-and-green tinged movie, which the interviewer deemed “a little desaturated.”

“I mean, there’s color all over it. I think what we wanted to do was immerse people into Oz, to make it a real place,” Chu said of the decision. “Because if it was a fake place, if it was a dream in someone’s mind, then the real relationships and the stakes that these two girls are going through wouldn’t feel real.”

The filmmaker continued, “It’s also [presented in] a way we have not experienced Oz before. It’s been a matte painting. It’s been a video game digital world. But for us, I want to feel the dirt. I want to feel the wear and tear of it. And that means it’s not plastic.”

Debate around the film’s look has stretched on since the beginning of September, lasting up and through the film’s theatrical premiere Nov. 22. Some users on X have expressed distaste for the “backlighting” and “drab” coloring of the movie, while others have defended the aesthetic and hit back at those trying to layer warming filters across shots of the film. Also notable is that the process of technicolor has largely been discontinued and deemed impossible to replicate, given its cost and that the tech required has gone out of vogue.

“We have the environment. The sun is the main source of light. You see the vast landscapes. You see the air. You see creatures exist here. These two characters that will go through two movies, their relationship with the land is important; their relationship with the nature of this land that the wizard imposed himself. The [color] contrast goes up over time because that is what Elphaba brings to this world,” Chu concluded.

Regardless, the discussion has not slowed the film down from defying gravity at the box office, breaking a slew of records including biggest global and domestic opening for a movie based on a Broadway show, for stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo and helmer Chu. The movie also had the largest global opening for a non-sequel film this year. One-half of “Glicked,” the theatrical event also featuring Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, the musical fueled a $205 million opening weekend, marking the best pre-Thanksgiving box office in over a decade.

Part One of the adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway production — itself based on Gregory Maguire’s bestselling novel, which retells the story of The Wizard of Oz from the point of view of the Wicked Witch of the West — follows Elphaba (Erivo) and Glinda the Good Witch’s (Grande) relationship prior to their eventual destinies. The film also stars Jonathan Bailey, Bowen Yang, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Ethan Slater and Peter Dinklage.