Sure, Wicked has some gay subtext – but how many characters and actors are actually queer?
For just under a month Twitter has been awash with comments about how gay Wicked’s characters are, from Glinda’s somewhat obvious love for Elphaba to Boq being secretly in the closet.
Wicked has always been beloved in the LGBTQ+ community, which I put down to its impressive soundtrack, themes of being an outsider, and undeniably eccentric characters. When the film adaptation was released to stellar reviews in November, arguments for Glinda being gay became a major talking point on Twitter as the book’s author, Gregory Maguire, seemingly confirmed speculation.
“I wanted to make Oz seem as real as Middle Earth. I wanted it to have a depth of culture, a depth of history and a depth of complexity, of experience that was more analogous to the world in which we live. And that meant it had to have varieties of sexual experience,” he told Them. “I wanted to propose this possibility, but I did not want to make a declarative statement about it.”
But looking past the virtue signals from the cast and author, which honestly could be born out of a desire to see the film do well, are there any gay characters or actors in Wicked?
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Many Wicked characters are played by gay actors
Though she tends to keep her private life behind closed doors, Cynthia Erivo identifies as queer and is currently dating Lena Waithe, a famous actress and producer with credits in Westworld, Boomerang, and The Chi.
“Sometimes you approach with fear and trepidation… [wondering] are people going to be OK with me and if I say the word ‘queer’ are people going to be offended. Then you stop caring that much… it’s just who I am. It’s part of the tapestry of the human being in front of you,” she said during an appearance on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast.
Some have shared their shock at learning Jonathan Bailey is gay despite the fact he’s never shied away from depicting his sexuality in his solid bank of work. Unfortunately, beyond his innate fruitiness, Fiyero is hetero.
“I’d say I’m not openly gay. I’m just gay. I knew that I wanted to be visible about my sexuality, because, in all the territories that Netflix goes out in, there might be a boy somewhere that goes, ‘Wait, what?’ Which is what I didn’t have when I was young,” he told The Standard in 2021. “All I know is that I’m happy to keep working really hard and if there are opportunities for representation, and to make that point, then that’s something I’ll always strive to do.”
We gays have a habit of latching onto powerful straight women, and the same could be said of Glinda’s besties Pfannee and Shenshen in Wicked. Pfannee actor Bowen Yang is out and proud, and Shenshen’s actress Bronwyn James married her wife in 2023.
Elphaba’s household was basically a Charli XCX concert with the number of gays crammed in there, with Nessarose actress Marissa Bode also batting for team rainbow with her girlfriend Lauren. Last, but definitely not least, is Dulcibear actress Sharon D. Clarke who is married to director Susie McKenna.
Of course, there are no doubt hordes of other gays within the Wicked cast.
Are there any gay characters in Wicked?
Before I even set foot in the cinema to see Wicked, I was hit with story after story about the cast’s certainty that their film was super gay. Naturally, I believed I was about to see queer couples in many varieties on the screen. I was mistaken.
I’ll admit that the film carries tons of queer allegory but besides a few flamboyant men in Emerald City – and my assumption that Dr Dillamond is an Ian McKellen-esque elder gay – the film was severely lacking actual queer representation.
They can talk about the hidden affection between Glinda and Elphaba all they like, but it doesn’t change that Wicked has exactly the same amount of gay characters as the Fast & Furious franchise.
