The real reason you won’t see Dorothy’s ruby red slippers in ‘Wicked’

Sure, witches have brooms and pointed hats, but it’s really all about the shoes.

For over 80 years, the shoes in question have been the ruby slippers from the 1939 adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. But don’t expect to see those scarlet pumps in Wicked, a prequel to The Wizard of Oz telling the tale of the origins of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Instead, the film (and the Broadway play it’s based on) remains true to L. Frank Baum’s original novel and casts the shoes as silver. We see the slippers briefly on Dorothy’s feet in the opening number, but more meaningfully, they appear on the feet of Elphaba’s sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), as a family heirloom that once belonged to their mother. (If you’re a Wizard of Oz fan, we probably don’t have to tell you what happens to the Wicked Witch’s sister and her shiny shoes).

Many fans have speculated that the reason the film used the silver shoes is because MGM produced the original, and Wicked is a Universal title. With Warner Bros. now owning the rights to many of MGM’s classic films, fans have surmised that Universal could not get the appropriate licensing to use the ruby slippers.

EW has reached out for comment on whether those copyright limitations were part of the design conversation. Director Jon M. Chu previously told Variety that they had “boundaries of what we could reference or not” — though he noted that the ruby slippers were never on his wishlist.

However, there are far more meaningful reasons why the slippers are silver here. It’s an homage to both L. Frank Baum’s original 1900 novel and to the stage production of Wicked, both of which feature silver shoes.

Indeed, MGM originally intended to maintain what was on the page and opt for silver slippers, until they decided to render the fantastical land of Oz in lush Technicolor. At that time, the filmmakers pivoted, selecting ruby slippers as the best option to sparkle on screen against the backdrop of the yellow brick road. The red sequined shoes highlighted the vivid color of the three-strip Technicolor film stock, a format that was still relatively novel in 1939, having only been introduced in the early 1930s.

When Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman adapted Gregory Maguire’s book, Wicked, for the stage, they maintained what Maguire — who turned more heavily to Baum’s original novels in his writing — had established on the page.

Eagle-eyed viewers likely noticed that while the shoes themselves are silver, there is a nod to Dorothy’s ruby slippers in the film. During “Popular,” Glinda (Ariana Grande) pulls a variety of clothes and shoes out of her wardrobe as options for Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) to wear — the first item is a sparkly pair of ruby red heels, which Elphaba summarily rejects.

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While the ruby slippers are a cinematic icon and a symbol of classic Hollywood filmmaking, the silver shoes might have a deeper meaning. A 1964 scholarly article about The Wizard of Oz argues that Baum’s original novel is a parable for populism, a political movement that took off in the 1890s. One of the core principles of populism was bimetallism, a push to reduce inflation by coining both gold and silver. Followers believed that creating a silver standard in addition to the pre-existing gold standard would boost the economy.

Henry Littlefield’s 1964 article argues that the silver shoes, cast against the yellow brick road, collectively represent the silver and gold standards at the heart of populism’s goals for the national economy.

The shoes will become even more important in the second half of Wicked, which won’t hit theaters until this time next year. But they’ll remain silver in deference to Baum’s novel and the stage musical.