The Four Main Witches of The Wizard of Oz: History and Appearances Explained

Four different witches occupy the world of The Wizard of Ozthe film that finally inspired Evil. The new film in the franchise tells the story of the Wicked Witch of the West before she earned her title, when she was a young girl named Elphaba who became unlikely friends with a woman named Glinda. Evil is adapted from the stage musical of the same name, bringing the beloved story to life on the big screen for the first time, and with an all-new, star-studded cast, Evil seems ready to bring once again The Wizard of Oz to the forefront of public consciousness in the near future.

Evil Has characters from the original The Wizard of Ozbut its functions are mostly expanded when compared to the original. However, one thing that remains consistent is that there are four witches; the Good Witch of the North, the Good Witch of the South, the Wicked Witch of the East and the Wicked Witch of the West. Their appearances throughout the series have been very different for the most part, but there have always been four witches in the land of Oz.

1

Glinda (The Good Witch of the North)

A true hero most of the time

In The Wizard of Oz franchise, Glinda the Good has been a staple character in every iteration, from the original book to Evil, which features his relationship with Elphaba. However, in the original 1900 book, Glinda is actually the Good Witch of the Southand the Good Witch of the North is an entirely different character. The Good Witch of the North has no name other than her title, and she is the one who gives Dorothy her slippers, which in the novel are silver, as opposed to the classic ruby ​​red in the film.

Glinda is only seen at the end of the book, when she helps Dorothy escape back to her home, thus having a very reduced role. The film obviously changes this, making Glinda the only good witch Dorothy encounters, who gives her the slippers and helps her at the end of the film. Since this change in the film, Glinda’s position as the Good Witch of the North has been the best-known and most adapted interpretation of the character.and the previous Witch of the North tends to be eliminated completely.

When it comes to the more recent adaptations, Glinda has been explored in much more detail and complexity than in the first film and book. The original Broadway Evil and Ariana Grande’s portrayal of Glinda show her previously unknown relationship with the Wicked Witch of the West, explaining how the two came to their positions and how their relationship changes when Dorothy arrives. She is given a lot more depth as a characterwith layers of good and bad that the originals weren’t able to delve into.

2013 Disney prequel, Oz the Great and Powerful does something similar to Eviltelling Glinda’s story before the originals, with varying degrees of success. She is a victim of being just another love interest for the main character.and although her personality is explored more than it was originally, she still doesn’t have much time to shine when compared to Evil.

2

The Wicked Witch of the West

Could be the big villain, maybe not

The Wicked Witch of the West is certainly the best-known witch in the world. The Wizard of Oz series, being the main antagonist in both the book and the original film, as well as being the protagonist of Evil. Her motives and origin changed as we saw deeper explorations of her character, but in the first book, she’s essentially just the evil witch that Dorothy must defeat to get home. She has no real depth of character or personality, simply existing to be an obstacle that Dorothy needs to overcome.

The 1939 The Wizard of Oz the film keeps her character largely the same, although, interestingly, the Wicked Witch’s iconic green skin was a creation of the film, not the source material. She has a little more depth, implied by Margaret Hamilton’s wonderful performance.presenting a Wicked Witch who has more depth that can go unexplored, even if the film itself doesn’t do much to explore it.

Evil This is where the character started to get really interesting, giving the Witch the name Elphaba and explaining her motivation beyond simply being evil. She became much more tragic, someone forced to become the Wicked Witch due to circumstances beyond their controland now he is one of the most beloved characters in The Wizard of Oz franchise. While a simply evil villain can be a great addition to a film, Elphaba’s story is excellent in Evildespite the confusing connection to the original, and his new character recontextualizes the entire series.

The Wicked Witch of the West also appears in Oz the Great and Powerful as Theodora, a good-hearted young witch who falls in love with Oscar and ends up being turned evil by her sister. This adds a new layer to her characteras she becomes evil against her will, although the character is not able to reach the same heights as Evil. In The Sorcererthe 1978 urban fantasy remake, the witch is called Evillene and is essentially the same character from the original film, an evil despot who needs to be defeated because she is so evil.

3

The Wicked Witch of the East

Mostly bred to be killed by a house

The Wicked Witch of the East, while never as important as the previous two, still plays a very important role in most adaptations. Originally, the Wicked Witch of the East’s only purpose was to be crushed by Dorothy’s house at the beginning of the book and leave her slippers for her to pick up. Obviously, There’s not much to work with in terms of characterwhich is reflected in the fact that she was never created again.

In the original film, she remains largely the same, just a plot element being crushed by a giant house as part of the inciting incident, despite some theories about the Witch of the East and Dorothy. There is a little more depth to be explored, but it comes mainly through the Wicked Witch of the West, who in the book doesn’t seem to care about her sister’s death. but in the film it shows at least some sadness about what happened. It’s still not much, but there’s a little more personality there.

However, the Wicked Witch of the East has been greatly expanded in projects sincebecoming much more of a real character. In Evil, she is Elphaba’s physically disabled sister, Nessarose, who eventually becomes the Wicked Witch after the man she loves turns into the classic Wizard of Oz character, the Tin Man. Evil has clearly made a point of turning as many of the one-note characters from the originals into well-rounded people as possible, and it’s been a very significant success at doing so.

The Wicked Witch of the East takes on a much more prominent role as the central antagonist in Oz the Great and Powerfulcalled Evanora. She takes more advantage of the original films, being mostly evil for the sake of being evil, without much in the way of more sympathetic qualities the character has in her. Evil. However, her much more prominent presence in the film allows her character to feel much more developedregardless of how well written or interesting it actually is.

4

The Good Witch of the South

Unfortunately not used most of the time

The Good Witch of the South is definitely the least used witch in The Wizard of Oz franchise, not having any major appearance in the series. As stated above, Glinda used to be the Good Witch of the South in the original book, where her role was relegated to simply showing up at the end to help Dorothy finally return home. She’s not a terrible character or anything, but She doesn’t have much to do alone either..

However, since the original The Wizard of Oz by 1939, Glinda had become much better known as the Good Witch of the North, leaving the Good Witch of the South nameless. Assuming that the Witch of the North in the book took the position of the Witch of the South in the film, it would still be very underdevelopedsimply a good witch who presumably did good things. Once again, the Good Witch of the North in the book did little, and in the film her role was taken over completely by Glinda, with nothing left of her character.

The Sorcerer brings Glinda back to her position as the Good Witch of the South, but most of the other projects depart from the film version of the character, accomplishing pretty much the same thing she did in the original book’s story, which is to say, not much. She is not mentioned in Oz the Great and Powerfuland also does not appear in Wicked, leaving the character, if she exists canonically in these more recent stories, completely marginalized.

While her no longer being a character is a shame, it’s understandable since most projects are trying to make time for the characters that people already know and love, which obviously mostly take the form of Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West, and making the Wicked Witch of the East a more prominent character in Oz the Great and Powerful and Evil It’s admirable. Unfortunately, with three witches already taking prominent roles in these projects, adding a fourth who will be distinct from the others doesn’t appear to be in the plans.