Inside the epic real-life Wicked set with a 16-tonne train and nine million actual tulips

Wicked has finally arrived in cinemas and people are already calling it one of the best films of the year.

From Ariana Grande’s great acting to the incredible soundtrack, all kinds of things make this movie special.

The amazing real-life set also adds to the film’s magic. Did you know the film used hardly any CGI?!

Credit: Wicked Movie/YouTube

The Wicked sets were all real

The Wicked sets were all real. Special effects were obviously added after to enhance everything, but the actual set was built from scratch.

From Munchkinland to Shiz Univeristy and the Emerald City, it was all built into a real-life set at Sky’s Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.

The film’s director Jon M. Chu insisted on doing this to make Wicked as realistic and magical as possible.

“We knew that we wanted Wicked to be immersive. What does it feel like to be in Oz? To feel it in your fingertips. If you want to be inside that world, you got to build it,” he said.

Even the green train was a “real, physical, tangible set,” as Ariana describes it, which took two days to build as it weighed 16 tonnes.

They planted nine million tulips

Plus, the producers literally planted nine million real tulips to make up Munckinland.

The field at Belmont Nurseries, near King’s Lynn in Norfolk caught the attention of director Chu, who insisted on using a genuine tulip field in the movie.

A set designer met with the owners of the field, Mark and Susanne Eves, in 2022 and announced their plans to use their flowers in the movie.

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They had already been planting tulips and opening the field to visitors to take pictures and raise money for charity.

However, the Wicked producers wanted a very specific design so the couple had to plant the flowers in a new pattern.

“It all seemed very simple to start with, as we do the field every year, but when you realise the patterns and colours and order they wanted, with nine million bulbs, it was a lot of organisation,” Mr Eves told the BBC.

“I was very nervous that we got the right colours in the right place – but it came right in the end.”

Credit: Wicked Movie/YouTube

The budget wasn’t even that big

A set that spectacular has everyone wondering the same thing – how big was the budget?! Well, according to Deadline, it was $145 million.

That’s exactly the same as the Barbie movie, which also had a production budget of $145 million and made a real-life Barbieland set.

It’s actually pretty average for a Hollywood budget. The most expensive film of all time was Star Wars: The Force Awakens at $447 million.

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Featured image by: Wicked Movie/YouTube