Wicked production designer talks turning the Yellow Brick Road into a “form of oppression”

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Few scenes in movie history are as instantly recognizable as the Yellow Brick Road, the vibrant heart of Victor Fleming’s classic film, The Wizard of Oz.

The Yellow Brick Road is just one of several famous locations from the original movie that will appear in Wicked: For Good – Dorothy’s farmhouse, famously dropped onto the Wicked Witch of the East, is another. This raises the question of how the filmmakers brought these beloved sets to life for the new film.

He explained that the farmhouse was a fairly simple design challenge. He understood that Dorothy’s house is an iconic symbol of American life, reminiscent of Andrew Wyeth’s paintings and the Midwest. Because it’s such a famous house – the one that flew – he felt it was crucial to visually represent it accurately and without any deviations, ensuring audiences instantly recognize it.

But when it came to the Yellow Brick Road, things were a little more complex.

He explained that the Yellow Brick Road is portrayed differently in this version because the story has changed. Instead of representing a joyful journey, it symbolizes oppression – the Wizard is actually using it to destroy the forests of Oz, and that’s a key part of the narrative we needed to show.

He explained that they also wanted to show how the Yellow Brick Road was created, connecting it to the story of the Munchkins. Apparently, the Munchkins used to grow all the colors of the rainbow, but now they only farm yellow tulips. For the movie, they grew a million yellow tulips in a separate field and filmed the process of turning those tulips into the yellow dye used for the bricks in Munchkinland.

They’re limited to just one color, which means they’re also suffering. They’re losing their vibrancy and the beauty of the full spectrum, and that has serious repercussions. That’s why I appreciate Wicked – it shares this untold perspective, instead of the familiar story we’ve all heard.

When the first movie came out almost a year ago, fans were amazed to learn that nine million tulips had been planted for it. It turns out that number was actually too low – with an additional million yellow tulips, the total is actually 10 million!

Crowley explained that creating the show’s visual look required finding many different yellows. This was because they filmed both in studios and outside, and sunlight and studio lights affect colors differently.

He explained that achieving the right look involves experimenting with various glazes and shades of yellow. “It takes a lot of testing to get it right,” he said. “We really spent a long time looking at countless yellow samples!”

Although fans will recognize many of the locations from the first film, the set for the song ‘For Good’ was significantly larger and more elaborate, according to Crowley.

He explained that creating the world and its atmosphere was a much larger task for the second film. While the first part centered on high school and the characters’ journey to the Emerald City, the second film is far more expansive. They had to showcase a much wider range of landscapes and really establish Oz as a vast and detailed world.

“It’s telling a much bigger story in For Good… I mean, it gets sort of epic!”

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2025-11-19 21:36