Wicked producer Marc Platt and author Gregory Maguire reveal several 1990s stars who wanted to play Glinda and Elphaba. Gregory Maguire’s Wicked book was published in 1995, and its success led to a bidding war over the rights among actors who wanted to see it made into a feature-length movie. This bidding war occurred before Wicked became the beloved musical that debuted in 2003 and that is still running on Broadway today.

As shared via Vanity Fair, when Platt joined Universal Pictures, Wicked was initially optioned to Demi Moore’s production company, Moving Pictures. This would have included Moore in the role of Elphaba, with Maguire recalling that “I used to say, I can imagine Demi Moore naked and green on the cover of Vanity Fair.” At the time, Moore was Hollywood’s highest-paid actress and had extensive star power following her roles in A Few Good Men, Indecent Proposal, and Striptease.

Moore’s competition included Whoopi Goldberg, whose manager tried to buy the rights. Claire Danes, Salma Hayek, and Laurie Metcalf are among the other actors who expressed interest in the project, although Maguire does not know whether they all planned to play Elphaba. Michelle Pfeiffer, Emma Thompson, and Nicole Kidman were considered for the role of Glinda. Moore’s company ultimately won the bidding war, although this version of the Wicked movie never received a greenlight, and it went on to become a musical instead. Check out Maguire’s comments below:

My agents in New York and in Hollywood recommended the Demi Moore proposal because her company had a preexisting relationship with Universal, and they said that will grease the skids on getting a potential project into production. It doesn’t promise it, but it means that you’ve already jumped over the problem of how to get somebody to pick up the phone at the studio. Demi Moore could make that happen. She had Universal on speed dial.

I saw a couple of screenplays, and I confess with all high regard to people who write screenplays—and that’s not me—I didn’t care for them much.

What This Means For Wicked

A 1990s Wicked Movie Would Have Been Nothing Like The Musical

If the Wicked movie had been a direct adaptation of Maguire’s novel, it would have been completely different from the musical version. Maguire’s book is much darker and more disturbing than the family-friendly musical. To faithfully adapt the book, the movie would have required an R rating and would not have included “Defying Gravity,” “Popular,” “Dancing Through Life,” or any of the Wicked songs from the Broadway musical and 2024 movie adaptation.

Moore, Goldberg, Kidman, and the other aforementioned stars playing Elphaba and Glinda would have delivered fundamentally different peformances compared to Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-Butera. Wicked‘s box office success stems from several factors, including the musical running for more than two decades, and the PG-rated, family-friendly appeal for all ages. The familiarity and all-ages appeal would not have been possible if Wicked had been made as a non-musical movie in the late 1990s.

Our Take On Wicked’s Early Movie Adaptation Attempts

Wicked’s Trajectory Turned Out For The Best

As someone who enjoys the Wicked novel, Broadway musical, and 2024 movie, it is fascinating to imagine how different the story’s trajectory could have been. Moore, Goldberg, Kidman, and all the other stars who were interested could have done a stellar job playing Elphaba or Glinda. However, it is for the best that this version of the project never came to fruition. It is better to have the Broadway musical, the 2024 movie, and 2025’s Wicked: For Good, which are able to reach a broader audience than a direct adaptation of Maguire’s Wicked would have done.