The Wicked Theory TikTok Got Right, According To The Costume Designer

Musical theater lovers across the world have been waiting for the first Wicked film ever since it was announced all the way back in 2012. Now that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande will be defying gravity on screen as Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, starting on Friday, Nov. 22, fans have channeled their excitement into theories and visual edits.

One theory that Wicked’s costume designer Paul Tazewell says that fans on TikTok and X got right is that Elphaba's glasses are shaped like the infinity symbol as a nod to her being “unlimited,” which she sings in “Defying Gravity.”

Cynthia was definitely part of collaborating.

“We went through a number of different [glasses] styles, and that seemed to be the right scale,” Tazewell tells Elite Daily. He even made sure to get Erivo’s input on what style she preferred. “Cynthia was definitely part of collaborating, and I'm very happy with where we ended up with her glasses.” (FYI, the Flozif frames are $25.95 on Zeelool.)

Even though the fans nailed it with Elphaba’s specs aesthetic, Tazewell confesses that he isn’t paying much attention to what everyone is saying online. “I stay away from reading too much about what people think. It just makes me nervous,” he says. “We have created, visually, a world that stays hugely magical. Every time that you see the film, you'll see something new.”

Tazewell made sure to add Easter eggs into each one of his designs that were “specific to each character.” “The mushroom pleating pattern that we have on Elphaba is reflective of her love of nature and of animals,” he says. Glinda’s sparkles and iridescence are “representative of her bubble,” and Madame Morrible (played by Michelle Yeoh), who can control the weather, has astrological signs embroidered into her costumes.

These new details are just some of the ways that Tazewell created something different for the screen than what fans know of the staged version of Wicked. When the Wicked movie poster that paid homage to the Broadway musical dropped in October, it was met with criticism from fans who wanted an exact replica. Some fans, like TikToker @ferlozar, even edited the poster to make it more like the OG.

Erivo was upset by some fan edits, saying, “None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.” The 37-year-old later walked back some of her comments on Instagram, chalking it up to having a “human moment” and being “really protective of the role” of Elphaba.

In response to fans editing Glinda’s costume in the poster, Tazewell says he doesn’t mind it “as long as it is done in a positive light.” He understands that “there are always going to be those fans who love the stage musical potentially more than they love the film,” but he’s hoping the movie is inviting to those diehards and draws them in to “experience a new telling of Wicked.”

With the film, we had more opportunity to offer up a larger, more complete view of what the world is because we were literally in those spaces for every scene.

“We've got new performers playing those roles. The sound is different. The way that they interpret those characters is different, so therefore, the visual of what that world is, is different,” he says. “With the film, we had more opportunity to offer up a larger, more complete view of what the world is because we were literally in those spaces for every scene. It's not abstracted in the way that you have to abstract for theater.”

Getting to film in gigantic sets like Emerald City and Munchkinland is part of the reason why Tazewell says the Wicked film is so magical, and he’s really proud of the work he did with all the costumes. He says, “I'm in love with everything that we've created and very proud of the whole film.”