The Trailer for 'Wicked: For Good' Reminds Us That Dorothy Is Coming to Oz

If you know anything about Wicked, you're likely aware that the movie is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz. While the story is primarily about the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch, Wicked: For Good is a reminder that the prequel is about to run headlong into the events of the film it's prequelizing.

In the stage version of Wicked, Dorothy and her cohort of misfits are part of the story, but they never fully appear on screen. Now, many are wondering whether Wicked has cast someone to play the role in the film version. Here's what we know.

As the first trailer for Wicked: For Good suggests, we are going to see at least glimpses of Dorothy in this new installment. The only character whose face we see is the cowardly lion, but given how crucial the role of Dorothy is to the original Wizard of Oz and how iconic Judy Garland's performance is, many want to know whether Wicked has cast someone to play the role. The short answer? If they have, they haven't announced it yet.

It's possible that they have cast someone in the role and are simply keeping it a secret, but it's worth noting that the stage version of Wicked goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure that Dorothy doesn't appear on stage. In the only scene she shares with Elphaba, she's obscured by a curtain so that, even as Elphaba is melting, we still don't see Dorothy herself. She's certainly part of the plot of the second act of the musical, even though we never directly see her.

Director John M. Chu teased Dorothy's involvement to Variety after the first part of the film hit theaters, but didn't offer much detail.

"In the [Broadway] show, Dorothy is around. They have to intersect, and you can only tease it so much," the director explained. "I won’t say whether she’s a character, necessarily, in movie two. There’s a part of me that wants everyone’s Dorothy to be the whatever Dorothy they want."

"And yet, there is interaction and some crossover. So I’ll leave that up to Part Two," he continued. The trailer makes it seem at least possible that we'll be getting none or very little onscreen Dorothy in this second installment. The trailer never shows her face, and perhaps there's a reason for that. Even so, there's been some speculation about who might play her in this second installment, even as no casting announcement has been made.

What the For Good trailer does emphasize, though, is the friendship between Galinda and Elphaba, and the way that will be shaped and changed by the events of the first film. The second act of Wicked doesn't have any songs as incredible as "Defying Gravity," but that doesn't mean that For Good can't be just as triumphant as the first installment, whether Dorothy is on screen or not.