Dorothy's ruby slippers in The Wizard of Oz are one of the most iconic props in cinema history, with one pair selling for $28 million last year (via BBC News), but they look a bit different in Wicked: For Good. As we saw in Wicked (in a brief glimpse of Dorothy and when they're gifted to Nessarose), the ruby slippers are no longer ruby, but silver.
If you're not up on your Wicked lore, you might be wondering whether this is a mistake on the part of the filmmakers. However, it's actually them being faithful to both the original Wizard of Oz book by Frank L Baum and the Wicked book by Gregory Maguire, which the musical was adapted from.
In both of those books, the "dazzling" shoes that were gifted to Nessarose are silver. Her father bought them from a tinker woman and then "dressed them up with silver glass beads", wrote Maguire of the shoes. But why did The Wizard of Oz change them to ruby slippers, and why did Wicked then change them back to silver?
Let's deal with The Wizard of Oz first. In order to make the most of the relatively new three-strip Technicolor, Noel Langley – one of the movie's co-writers – came up with the idea to change the silver shoes into the ruby slippers, helping them stand out more on the yellow brick road. MGM costume designer Gilbert Adrian – better known as Adrian – then designed the slippers, using burgundy sequins for their iconic look.
It's fair to say that the change paid off given the impact that the ruby slippers had, but why did Wicked – both the musical and the movie adaptation – then choose to move away from this famous look? It's quite simple, really: they had no choice.
It was rumoured that the main reason the Wicked movies used the silver instead of ruby slippers is because of copyright. MGM (now owned by Warner Bros) owns the rights to the ruby slippers, having produced The Wizard of Oz, and the Wicked movies are released by Universal. Baum's book, however, is in the public domain so there's no legal issues there when it comes from taking elements from the book.
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Director Jon M Chu appeared to confirm as much when he was asked by Variety last year about whether they needed "permission" to use the ruby slippers. "We had boundaries of what we could reference or not. We never use the ruby slippers. Nessa has on crystal slippers as in the Frank L Baum book, Gregory Maguire book and the show," he noted.
That wasn't the only change from The Wizard of Oz too, but it's not as noticeable as the ruby slippers change. "I don't think the phrase 'yellow brick road' is copywritten, but definitely the shape of the road is. We couldn't do the spiral. We had to do a circle that continues to show it's not where the road ends," he added.
Like the musical though (where they are also silver), Wicked: For Good finds a way to pay homage to the ruby slippers when Elphaba enchants Nessarose's shoes to allow her to levitate, as seen in the trailers. When Elphaba is casting the spell, the slippers start to glow red which echoes how, in the musical, a red light is shone on them to make them appear like ruby slippers.
Talking to Variety, cinematographer Alice Brooks said the use of red reflected that Elphaba and Nessarose were making "the wrong choice". The ruby glow of the slippers is entirely intentional too, with Brooks adding: "They get hotter and hotter, and that red became our most vibrant red."
It's also not too dissimilar to how they described in Maguire's book when Elphaba first looks at the shoes. "In the firelight, it was like looking at boiling corpuscles of blood under a magnifying glass," Maguire wrote.
So while Wicked: For Good might not have the ruby slippers you remember, it manages to be faithful to both the original book and the iconic version worn by Judy Garland.
For more on Wicked: For Good, check out:
• Wicked: For Good review
• Who plays Dorothy in Wicked: For Good?
• When will Wicked: For Good be available to stream?
• How long is Wicked: For Good?
• The best Wicked: For Good gifts and merchandise
Wicked: For Good is out now in cinemas.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
