Behind the Magic of Oz: Producer Marc Platt on 20 Years of 'Wicked' and Its Enduring Impact

Marc Platt, the producer of Universal Pictures’ new cinematic event Wicked, is a former Universal executive, and Universal has been a part of the Wicked phenomenon from the beginning. Platt’s producing career spans film, theater and television. His projects have grossed more than $8 billion worldwide and garnered a combined 46 Oscar® nominations, 39 BAFTA nominations, 36 Tony nominations and 58 Emmy nominations. 

Interview with Wicked Producer Marc Platt

Wicked  has been a part of your life for more than two decades now. How did your journey with this property begin?  

MP: I first came across Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked about 25 years ago, while I was then president of production at Universal Pictures. I thought it was a brilliant idea for a film, so when I ended up leaving that executive position to become a producer at Universal, I said to the studio, “There’s a project I want to take with me, and it’s called Wicked.” Thankfully, they agreed.   

At the time I was developing it as a film, but each screenplay felt that it was missing something. And then one day I got a phone call from composer Stephen Schwartz, who’d written many great musicals for Broadway and film and had won an Oscar for DreamWorks Animation’s The Prince of Egypt. He said, “I know you have the rights to Wicked. Did you ever consider turning it into a musical?” And the lightbulb went off in my head. I thought, “That’s what’s been missing from these screenplays. I don’t feel the magic because it’s a story that wants to sing.” 

That led me down this interesting path. I decided I wanted to create this world on stage first. My thinking was that if Wicked became successful as a stage musical first, maybe someday I would make a film. Gregory Maguire agreed to let me have the stage rights, and in the late 1990s I began to develop Wicked as a stage musical. After a number of years of development with Universal as my partner, we put the show on Broadway, and it became a cultural phenomenon. It has played now more than 20 years on Broadway, and has played all over the world, generating about $6 billion worldwide. 

Over the years I was approached many times about turning the stage musical into a film, most especially by Universal because they recognized its potential as a great cinematic experience. For years I had resisted doing that because the stage show was, and is, doing so well, but also because I wanted some distance from what we’d created on stage. I wanted to clear my head, so to speak, and approach Wicked in a different, and cinematic, way. This felt like the right time. The opportunity to build a cinematic world that’s vast and epic was an exciting proposition. To be able to dramatize many of the elements that you can’t on stage— flying monkeys, castles, woods, Munchkinland, Emerald City, Shiz University —really opened the door to create a singular experience on film. 

It has taken me 27 years to get to this moment, and to be here is quite thrilling. It makes me feel a little old [laughs], but it’s very exciting.  

Why do you think these characters, and this story, have resonated with audiences so deeply over such a long period of time?  

MP: What’s so interesting about Wicked is that, as time has gone on, it has become more and more relevant to the world we live in. Gregory Maguire, in his novel, was interested in investigating the nature of good versus evil. Are we born good or evil? Does society imbue us with those qualities, or do we choose a path? Wicked is also a story about what is true and what is not, which is really relevant in the world we’re living in today, particularly a world filled with social media, where people can say whatever they want and it sticks. Whatever is assumed to be true becomes true, even if its false.  

At its heart, Wicked is essentially the story of two young women who are very different. One of whom, Galinda, who will become Glinda the Good, is born to the manor, is beautiful and popular. The other, Elphaba, who will become the Wicked Witch of the West, is born green and is not loved, even by members of her own family. But Elphaba has a magic power that nobody else in Oz seems to possess. The characters are very aspirational, and people see themselves in this world. The characters embody these ideas of doing good in the world, of making sacrifice, of trying to get the truth known. All of that tremendous heart and emotion is in the show, and now the film, while still being a great big entertainment with fantastic music and lots of comedy and adventure. 

The world that we’ve created can be more complicated and bigger, our characters can be better articulated, and the epic nature and scale of the piece, as well the epic emotions, can be realized. This first film tells how Elphaba became the Wicked Witch, and the second tells us how Glinda travels the journey to become genuinely good. As two films, it will be an experience for fans, and even for folks who don’t know Wicked, that will live over time as they experience one film and then the next. 

You hired Jon M. Chu to direct this film. What was it about his vision that made him the right filmmaker for Wicked?  

MP: Jon loves Wicked, so he understands the essence of it and he adheres to the heart and soul of these characters and what Wicked is. And yet, he’s so inventive and confident that he’s not afraid to reinterpret a bit, to elaborate further, to take the film on paths that are organic to the story but are where we haven’t gone before.  

He also brought his visual inventiveness, his sense of style and design, in creating the world. He led the charge on how the camera moves, how the film sings and how it dances.  He’s not afraid to go places where the story hasn’t gone before, so his vision is fresh and inventive; it’s bold and energetic. His sensibility is so contemporary yet classic at the same time. I think this film is a crowning achievement for him and it will become a classic. That was important because we want this film, these films, to stand the test of time. We want them to live on forever. 

Audiences have lots of ways to see movies these days. Why is it important for people to see Wicked in theaters?  

MP: This film, from the ground up, has been made for the big screen, and I’m so grateful that Universal made this film. Of course, they’re my partner in the stage production and they’ve been the leader from day one in the whole enterprise. But they’re also very committed to making movies that have to be seen in movie theatres, which is very important to me and to Jon Chu.   

There’s an epic quality to the world that we’ve created. It’s so vast and the camera travels in ways that are breathtaking and truly immersive. The big screen is the only way to truly experience it. The emotions are big, the music is big, and you’re going to want that in-theater sonic experience because these magnificent musical numbers, and the performances by these two women, is singular, believe me. You can’t recreate it anywhere else. Most of all, though, audiences should see it on the big screen because Wicked is a collective experience. You feel it when you’re in the audience: the way people laugh, the way people applaud, the way people cry. It’s part of what makes Wicked so special and part of what gives it its staying power. You can only experience that in theater.