In the ending of Wicked: For Good, Elphaba and Fiyero run away to ‘The Land Beyond Oz” after tricking everyone into believing Elphaba died. But what actually is “The Land Beyond Oz”?
‘The Land Beyond Oz’ was talked about loads in Wicked: For Good
via Universal
The latest Wicked film continues basically right where the last one left off, and the animals of Oz are being discriminated against. As the laws start getting more anti-animal, we see a bunch of them head away from Oz and jump into a mysterious white portal that takes them to the ominously named Land Beyond Oz. By the end of the film, all the animals are safe to come back, so we know it’s not a place where you’re stuck forever. But what actually is it?
The original book goes into way more detail on The Land Beyond Oz
via Universal Pictures
When Elphaba and Fiyero run away together at the end of Wicked: For Good, we see them on a dream-like beach with no one else, and they start walking into the sea. If we compare this to the books, this is probably one of the fictional places mentioned in the Wicked and original Wizard of Oz books – Ix, Lux, Ev and the Deadly Desert.
The Deadly Desert is a major part of the original Wizard of Oz book, and is the boundary between Oz and the rest of the world. It’s quite similar to the dreamlike place Elphaba and Fiyero end up in at the end of the film – the sand “glitters like powdered glass” and the heat is “intense”. Elphaba’s magic and Fiyero’s lack of skin as a literal scarecrow would probably protect them from the dangerous parts of the Desert.
After getting through the Desert, they could’ve travelled to any of the mythical lands outside of Oz, hopefully places that won’t try and kill Elphaba again.
Elphaba is adamant that they’ll never return to Oz at the end of the film, but since we see that the animals can come back from The Land Beyond Oz, a part of me hopes she changes her mind and reunites with Glinda one day.
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