The real reason why Glinda can't use magic in evil

Stop your trip down the yellow brick road if you don't know the full story of 'Wicked' yet – spoilers ahead!

When we first meet Galinda Upland, played by pop star and actor Ariana Grande-Buter in John M. Chu's epic musical adaptation of Wicked: Part One, she is a young student at Shizu University who is eager to prove herself, especially to the school's representatives. Dean of Magic, Mrs. Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). There's just one problem: Galinda doesn't have a particularly strong natural inclination toward magic or sorcery, and to make matters worse, her new roommate, the green-skinned Elphaba Tropp (Cynthia Erivo), does has an innate affinity for magical arts.

So what's the deal here? Why isn't Galinda, who eventually changes her name to Glinda (after Peter Dinklage's Shiz professor Dr. Dillamond, a goat with a problem with the “uh” sound who gets kicked out when Oz brutalizes animals in society) a naturally talented witch—and so far, how does someone who apparently can't do magic get to be known as Glinda the Good Witch? (In the beginning of “Wicked: Part One,” we see very end of the whole story, where Glinda leads a group of Ozians celebrating the apparent death of Elphaba, the “Wicked Witch of the West.”) Does Glinda ever really learn to do magic, or is it all just a clever illusion? Here's why Glinda has a hard time casting spells in the Wicked musical and its film adaptations, and whether that's changing. (Simply put, the answer is “maybe”.)

Right from the beginning of “Wicked: Part One,” we see Glinda — as the Good Witch later in the timeline — “perform” some magic in “No One Mourns the Wicked,” but based on her time at Shiz University, young Galinda has absolutely no affinity for magic. Elphaba rambles on nonsensically and charmingly makes it clear to Madam Morrible that she is an extremely talented sorceress…but Galinda is stuck begging Dean of Magic for a place in one of her classes (boasts about her work on wands and whether or not they make sense trying to get into seminary, which is of course very funny). Thanks to Elphaba's younger sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) for her “help” in stalking Bok Woodsman (Ethan Slater), Elphaba convinces Mrs. Morrib to let Galinda study with them… and when Galinda realizes this, she stops trying to publicly humiliate Elphaba. , and the two become fast friends.

The highlight of Wicked: Part One, as far as Galinda's magical abilities are concerned, comes right before Ariana Grande-Buter's show-stopping number “Popular,” when Galinda informs Elphaba that she will use her wand to replace the green witches. a “dress” or “coat” (which Galinda then calls a “froat”) in another garment. Galinda's spell attempts are played for laughs, but the sequence also reveals a simple truth: Galinda doesn't seem capable of any magic.

So is there any explanation for this why Galinda doesn't seem to have any natural magical powers? Yes, but it's in a deleted scene! In the digital release of Wicked, fans saw a whole bunch of deleted scenes, including one that explains Galinda's close friendship with Pfané (Bowen Young) and ShenShen (Bronwyn James), and another where Elphaba and Bok have a little heart. – to the heart about unrequited love (Bock carries Galinda's torch, but Elphaba is in love with Galinda's friend Prince Fijero Tigellar, played by Jonathan Bailey). However, what we focus on is the one where Elphaba tells Galinda why she may not have an innate way to control magic.

After Elphaba and Fiijero save the lion cub from becoming a test subject for horrific experiments in Shiza, Elphaba returns to her room to find Galinda attempting a simple flotation spell, but Galinda asks why magic is so difficult for her. Elphaba shares the theory that Galinda's life of privilege has been easy…making it difficult for her to access her potential magical powers. Galinda then tells her friend that she would have helped with the baby lion instead of Fijero, further cementing their friendship. and Galinda's kind, thoughtful side… and Elphaba tells her friend, “I won't leave you again.” (Unfortunately, this is not true, but Elphaba doesn't really know that yet.)

At the end of “Wicked: Part One,” ending with Elphaba's power ballad “Defying Gravity,” which marks the same ending point of the musical's first act, Elphaba. does leave Glinda (without the “uh”) behind, in large part because Madam Morrible and The Wizard of Oz (totally irreverent Jeff Goldblum) are hot on their heels after Elphaba makes several disturbing discoveries about the wizard. (In no particular order, these revelations include that the wizard is a fraud who can't read from the magical book known as the Grimmerie, he wants to use Elphaba to perform nefarious magic, and he believes in subjugating talking animals.) Elphaba creates a flying broomstick and escapes of Madam Morrible and the Wizard, leaving Glinda alone; as we see in “No One Mourns the Wicked,” Glinda becomes the mouthpiece of the wizarding evil regime by “celebrating” her friend's death (though Ariana Grande-Buter's performance includes some excellent moments where we see glimpses of her inner conflict).

So does any of this mean that in “Wicked: For Good,” the upcoming second “Wicked” movie, named after Elphaba and Galinda's emotional duet. — let's see Glinda perform real magic? This has yet to be determined; Glinda will spend the second half of the story largely “at odds” with Elphaba for political reasons, before slipping into her seemingly magical pink bubble to save the day at the very end (assuming “For Good” follows the “Wicked” stage musical as closely as it did ” Part One”) and arrest Mrs. Morrib and the Wizard for basically being big jerks. Hang on – let's talk a little about this pink bubble though.

Wizard everything in the movie “Wicked” and 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz” This is due to the fact that in all versions of this well-known story, he is a huge fraud. He is not an all-powerful, all-seeing magical being; he's just a dude from Nebraska who can't do magic. (This is no slight to Nebraska, by the way; he's just lying about it, while also lying about being able to do magic.) With that in mind, let's think about Glinda's “magical” floating pink bubble that serves as her primary mode of transit . Is it really magic created by her big, bright wand, or is it a trick?

It could very well be the latter. When Glinda arrives in Munchkinland, when news spreads that the Wicked Witch of the West is gone, she repeatedly “snaps” and “unsnaps” her (apparently soundproof?) bubble so she can talk to the Munchkins. However, based on the fact that the wizard, while certainly not magical, is a very clever inventor, he certainly could have created a mechanically controlled flying bubble for Glinda to use. That's right it seems as if she's pressing a button to “protrude” and “open” the thing, which could be another indication that neither the wizard nor Glinda are actually magical, and that the citizens of Oz should pay more attention to the man behind the curtain…or, what say, a woman in a bubble.

“Wicked: Part One,” in which Glinda does no magic as we know it, is now available to rent or buy on major streaming platforms. Wicked: For Good is currently slated to open in theaters on November 21, 2025.