Featured Image Credit: Universal Pictures
Topics: News, Wicked, TV And Film, LGBTQ,
Kya Buller
As fans all over the world enjoy the glorious event that is the release of Wicked, reports suggest the cinematic event of the year has been banned in one country for a sickening reason.
John M. Chu's film adaptation of the iconic musical, starring Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba (who later becomes known as the Wicked Witch of the West), as well as Jonathan Bailey, Bowen Yang and Marissa Bode in the supporting cast.
Heralded for the number of LGBTQ+ identifying members of the cast, of which the aforementioned supporting cast all do, the motion picture has already brought many queer people together to celebrate themselves on the big screen.
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The musical begins with the people of Oz celebrating the green-skinned Elphaba's apparent death, while Glinda, who is adored, is forced to reflect upon the unlikely friendship she forged with the outcast during their younger years at Shiz University, as well as the shocking events that led Elphaba to become 'wicked'.
The plot serves as a prequel to the 1900 novel and 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, a universally beloved story which follows a young girl named Dorothy who lands in Oz after dreaming of something better than her hometown of Kansas.
But according to a report from Variety, on the eve of Wicked's release in Kuwait, the film was banned from release.
The understanding is that it's an 'evolving issue', with the Gulf state previously having banned Barbie to protect 'public ethics' and 'ideas and beliefs that are alien to Kuwaiti society and public order.'
According to the report, "some local media have speculated that the move was prompted by the fact that the Universal Pictures’ critically-acclaimed musical boasts an LGBTQ cast."
It's a shocking development in the much anticipated release of the film, which has been a huge critical and commercial success.
A box office smash, journalist Wendy Ide summed up the general reaction in her review for The Guardian, in which she noted: "Wicked the movie takes flight and lifts our hearts along with it."
Variety continued: "Kuwait has become the strictest of the Gulf states when it comes to film censorship, more so than Saudi Arabia. Following the banning of Barbie last summer, Kuwaitis actually travelled over the border to see the film. Later in 2023, Kuwait also banned the horror film Talk to Me over the inclusion of a trans actor."
Tyla has approached Universal Pictures for comment.