Wicked’s magical performances, stunning songs, and eye-catching locations have all combined to transfix movie fans.
The adaptation of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s hit Broadway musical, twists The Wizard Of Oz story on its head. Told from the perspective of Galinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the story depicts their topsy-turvy time as roommates at Shiz University, while teasing how the pair became Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West, respectively.
Since Wicked is based on one of the most popular stories in American history, with L Frank Baum’s original novel released all the way back in 1900, it might be surprising to film fans that the musical fantasy was shot entirely in the United Kingdom. What’s impressive, though, is that director Jon M Chu, production designer Nathan Crowley, and their teams were still able to recreate the Americana aesthetic so perfectly.
But where did Wicked actually film? Take a look below at Wicked’s filming locations.
Oz was partly created at home of Harry Potter
Wicked was primarily filmed at Sky Studios Elstree in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, just over 14 miles north of London.
In order to have as much control of production as possible, they took full advantage of the state-of-the-art film studio’s 12 soundstages. In fact, production on Wicked was so humongous that they even had to use stages at the nearby Elstree Studios and at the Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden – home of Harry Potter and more recently, Wonka – in the same county.
Wicked used a whopping 17 soundstages across these three studios, while four backlot sets were also required to make the magical world of Oz.
Munchkinland was built in Buckinghamshire
Wicked’s Munchkinland was built in the small village of Ivinghoe, just outside of Luton.
This is where the opening sequence of the film unfolds, as Galinda the Good tells the villagers that the Wicked Witch of the West has been killed, regales them with the story of Elphaba’s terrible childhood, and then admits that they knew each other.
Distinctive cottages and their colourful thatched roofs were built for filming, as well as the luminous yellow brick road that leads people to the Munchkinland market. For shooting purposes, Crowley had to sink the village into the ground, though. This way, they could transition to Munchkinland from the mass fields of tulips that surround it, since the flowers were actually shot on the other side of the country.
... And in a Norfolk tulip field
Crowley knew that if Wicked was to succeed Munchkinland had to look outlandish, whimsical and shine brightly.
To achieve this, he cultivated nine million tulips in Norfolk, which he then incorporated into the film. ‘Our vision involved integrating the Munchkin village within the tulip fields, creating a smooth transition between the cultivated fields and the small marketplace village where many of the musical numbers would unfold,’ he says.
Wicked’s location manager Adam Richard worked with Mark Eves, a Norfolk flower farmer, to source and then grow the millions of different coloured tulips on a 6.8 acre backlot. Visual effects were then used to make the Norfolk’s flower farm seamlessly transition into the Buckinghamshire Munchkinland.
The Shiz waterways were filmed in East Sussex
Galinda’s arrival at Shiz University immediately makes viewers aware of her superficial but vivacious personality, both of which soften as she grows closer to Elphaba. She travels down a waterway on a huge pink sailboat, which is packed to the brim with her belongings, so that she can begin her studies.
Chu saw a great opportunity to depict a more fantastical side of the Land Of Oz with this sequence. ‘L Frank Baum wrote a lot about how Oz was connected by waterways, but we had never seen that,’ he explains. ‘Water plays such an iconic place in the story of the Wicked Witch. I love that in order to get to school, you take these boats in; we built all that for the film.’
Chu and his crew picked Seven Sisters Country Park in East Sussex’s South Downs National Park to shoot the boats traveling to Shiz University. This also allowed them to include the South Downs’ chalk cliffs, which only added to the majesty and drama of the visual, as they wouldn’t look out of place in The Land of Oz.
Read our verdict on Wicked here.
Where was Wonka filmed? All the filming locations from the Roald Dahl musical.