Originally appeared on E! Online.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for “Wicked: For Good”
The “Wicked” creators removing a scene from the sequel was for good.
“Wicked: For Good” screenwriter Dana Fox revealed that a passionate kiss scene between Ariana Grande’s Glinda and Jonathan Bailey’s Fiyero was cut so that audiences would have a more positive opinion of their characters.
Indeed, there was originally meant to be a more PDA-filled moment between the two actors, whose characters were set to wed until Fiyero’s true love, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), returned from her hiding.
“It was romantic and beautiful, but a little too passionate,” Fox told Deadline in an interview published Nov. 21. “Seeing that made it too hard to watch him make the choice he makes to be with Elphaba and made it too hard to make it OK that Elphaba ran off with him. It was too real that he and Glinda were actually feeling something together.”
Fiyero and Glinda’s relationship isn’t touched upon much in the film, with Glinda announcing she was engaged to Fiyero, unbeknownst to him, while giving a public speech to the citizens of Oz. So, Fox felt that insinuating there were true feelings between the pair made it seem cruel for Fiyero to run off with Elphaba.
READ: Jonathan Bailey has a message for his school bullies at ‘Wicked: For Good’ premiere
“It was like a feeling that he really did love her — which he does care about Glinda a lot, don’t get me wrong,” Fox continued. “But he likes her in a different way.”
And keeping Glinda and Fiyero’s relationship from seeming like something deeper hopefully prevented viewers from blaming any one character in the love triangle.
“This scene was too romantic, so it was like, ‘Oh, we can’t know that because then our brains will explode when he doesn’t choose her in the end,'” Fox explained. “And then we’ll hate Elphaba, Glinda and Fiyero.”
Ultimately, she was happy with the decision to leave it out of the film. As she put it, “Everything we cut, I felt we cut for exactly the right reasons.”
Elphaba’s iconic witch hat is just one of the incredible pieces created by “Wicked” costume designer Paul Tazewell. He began his process eight months before filming, using “The Wizard of Oz” as well as the original “Wicked” novel and Broadway musical for inspiration.
