They didn’t explain it in Wicked, but here’s the reason Elphaba has green skin

Elphaba is everyone’s new favourite hero, or anti-hero from the phenomenal Wicked, and musical lovers got to see a whole new side to the character in the film. She’s clever, she’s talented, and she’s… green. There’s actually a reason behind her green skin and it’s briefly touched on in the film, but it’s never explained and viewers are left to piece together the gaps in the story themselves. So, here’s a full explainer of why Elphaba is actually canonically green in the story of Wicked

Why is Elphaba green?

There’s a scientific explanation to Elphaba’s green skin – well, as sciency as you can get in the fictional city of Oz. Elphie was born green because her mother, Melena, drank a green elixir the night she was conceived.

If you remember the first twenty minutes of the film, it takes you all the way back to Elphaba’s birth, and how she was born out of an affair with an unnamed man. While Governor Thropp, Melana’s husband, was out on business, Melena invited a gentleman caller over. (if you’ve seen the musical you’ll know who he is!)

It’s implied that the two had an affair which led to the conception of Elphaba, and the mystery man Melena brought over gave her a green elixir which she drank. This was the reason why her baby was green.

The movie and the original novel have very different tales of her conception

In the Wicked movie, Elphaba’s mother had an affair with the unnamed man, but in the novel, the encounter is instead portrayed as an assault in which she is drugged by the green elixir. Two very different stories, but both point to the green elixir being the reason why Elphaba has green skin.

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