Why you never see Dorothy's face in new Wicked film - and who she actually is
In the year since the first-half of Wicked landed in cinemas around the world, fans of the magical musical have wondered who'll play Dorothy in the second-half, Wicked: For Good.
For those in need of a reminder, the films are set in the years prior to the events of the original 1939 Wizard of Oz blockbuster.
The first instalment centres on the Wicked Witch's of the West's - AKA Elphaba's - time at Shiz University, where she befriends Glinda the Good.
Based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 revisionist novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the story was transformed into a toe-tapping musical by composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz and playwright Winnie Holzman.
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Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande play the gifted gal-pals, whose friendship is skewed at the end of the first flick when the Elphaba calls out the Wizard for falsely claiming magical abilities to control the citizens of Emerald City.
The second of director Jon M. Chu's hit takes place some years later, with Elphaba - now fully having embraced her 'Wicked' title, despite secretly being the good guy - living in hiding, a price on her head.
Glinda, meanwhile, has risen to become the face of Oz, and is set to marry Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who is secretly in love with Elphaba.
The events of For Good line-up with Dorothy Gale's journey to Oz after she lands in Munchkinland with her dog Toto.
As we've known for almost a century, as she follows the Yellow Brick Road in her sparkly red magical slippers to meet the Wizard - hoping he'll send her home to Kansas - she meets the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion.
Though the foursome are featured for several seconds in the first time, fans predicted they'd take on a considerably larger role in the second, given that the Wizard of Oz ends with the Wicked Witch's infamous melting.
As a result, speculation over which huge-name star take on Dorothy has been rife for over 365 days, with Madison Beer and Alisa Weir being some of the more popular choices.
It turns out, however, that Universal bosses opted for a considerably less famous star, given that Dorothy was only to receive a tiny amount of screen-time.
In fact, we only see Dorothy from further away in a handful of screens - and in them, her full face is never shown.
As eagle-eyed readers of the credits might have already seen, the youngster is played by English actress, choreographer and dancer Bethany Weaver.
The 30-year-old is famed for having recently choreographed the West End musical Asmahan, and appeared in both Rumi the Musical and Broken Wings the Musical in 2018.
Weaver previously shared a video of herself performing 'The Wizard and I' from the first film on Instagram, claiming in the caption she was 'aggressively manifesting that one day I will be in Wicked!”
And that, she was - but not to the extent viewers would have imagined.
Asked why he chose to hardly feature Dorothy in For Good, Chu recently told PEOPLE: "I didn’t want to step on who you think Dorothy is in whatever story that you came into this with.
"She’s probably more in this story than in the show and yet not taking over the story.
"It is still Elphaba and Glinda’s journey, and she is a pawn in the middle of all of it."
The filmmaker added that he appreciates seeing 'two worlds get to collide in this movie', describing it as 'the thing that we’ve all been waiting for'.
And apparently, it's a decision that lead star Erivo is in full agreement with, previously telling Empire of the importance of memorialising Judy Garland - the actress who made Dorothy's character famous in 1939.
"I think that’s such a wonderful thing to do," she explained, adding 'because then everyone gets to keep the Dorothy that they know'.
Topics: Celebrity, TV And Film, Wicked, Music
Rhianna Benson