{"id":627,"date":"2024-12-03T11:49:02","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T11:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/?p=416126"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"they-didnt-explain-it-in-wicked-but-heres-the-reason-elphaba-has-green-skin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2024\/12\/03\/they-didnt-explain-it-in-wicked-but-heres-the-reason-elphaba-has-green-skin\/","title":{"rendered":"They didn&#8217;t explain it in Wicked, but here&#8217;s the reason Elphaba has green skin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/2024\/11\/27\/cynthia-erivos-gravity-defying-life-when-shes-not-being-painted-green-for-wicked\">Elphaba<\/a> is everyone&#8217;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 <a href=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/2024\/11\/25\/heres-who-smashed-the-box-office-and-won-glicked-weekend-and-it-wasnt-even-close\">film<\/a>. She&#8217;s clever, she&#8217;s talented, and she&#8217;s&#8230; green. There&#8217;s actually a reason behind her green skin and it&#8217;s briefly touched on in the film, but it&#8217;s never explained and viewers are left to piece together the gaps in the story themselves. So, here&#8217;s a full explainer of why Elphaba is actually <a href=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/2024\/12\/03\/the-real-reason-glinda-and-elphaba-dont-wear-the-same-school-uniform-as-everyone-else\">canonically green<\/a> in the story of Wicked<\/p>\n<h2>Why is Elphaba green?<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_416140\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-416140\" style=\"width: 1705px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-509\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2024\/12\/VS-YouTube-WickedTheWizardandI-000-e1733225833855.jpg\" alt=\"elphaba green wicked\" width=\"1705\" height=\"796\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-416140\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">via YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There&#8217;s a scientific explanation to Elphaba&#8217;s green skin &#8211; 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.<\/p>\n<p>If you remember the first twenty minutes of the film, it takes you all the way back to Elphaba&#8217;s birth, and how she was born out of an affair with an unnamed man.\u00a0While Governor Thropp, Melana&#8217;s husband, was out on business, Melena invited a gentleman caller over. (if you&#8217;ve seen the musical you&#8217;ll know who he is!)<\/p>\n<p class=\"w-full mb-4 text-body-6 md:text-body-5 font-body dark:text-neutral-white external:text-custom-content-text external:dark:text-custom-content-text\" data-experiment=\"{\">It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"w-full mb-4 text-body-6 md:text-body-5 font-body dark:text-neutral-white external:text-custom-content-text external:dark:text-custom-content-text\" data-experiment=\"{\">The movie and the original novel have very different tales of her conception<\/h2>\n<p data-experiment=\"{\">In the Wicked movie, Elphaba&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p data-experiment=\"{\"><em>For the latest memes, quizzes, updates and pop culture news \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thetabglobal\/\">like The Tab on Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You&#8217;re&#8230; green!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[42,4,43],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-ariana-grande","tag-film","tag-wicked"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.4 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Here&#039;s the reason Elphaba has green skin in Wicked<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"They didn&#039;t explain it in Wicked, but here&#039;s the reason why Elphaba has green skin. The original novel and film have two different portrayals.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2024\/12\/03\/they-didnt-explain-it-in-wicked-but-heres-the-reason-elphaba-has-green-skin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"They didn&#039;t explain it in Wicked, but here&#039;s the reason Elphaba has green skin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"They didn&#039;t explain it in Wicked, but here&#039;s the reason why Elphaba has green skin. The original novel and film have two different portrayals.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2024\/12\/03\/they-didnt-explain-it-in-wicked-but-heres-the-reason-elphaba-has-green-skin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Film Shrine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-12-03T11:49:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2024\/12\/385.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sofia Aira\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sofia Aira\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2024\/12\/03\/they-didnt-explain-it-in-wicked-but-heres-the-reason-elphaba-has-green-skin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2024\/12\/03\/they-didnt-explain-it-in-wicked-but-heres-the-reason-elphaba-has-green-skin\/\",\"name\":\"Here's the reason Elphaba has green skin in Wicked\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2024\/12\/03\/they-didnt-explain-it-in-wicked-but-heres-the-reason-elphaba-has-green-skin\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2024\/12\/03\/they-didnt-explain-it-in-wicked-but-heres-the-reason-elphaba-has-green-skin\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2024\/12\/385.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-12-03T11:49:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/#\/schema\/person\/3fb9330d55a1e4e45368b455607ae5ab\"},\"description\":\"They didn't explain it in Wicked, but here's the reason why Elphaba has green skin. 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