Ariana Grande & Jon M. Chu Give Behind-the-Scenes Look at How Surreal ‘Wicked’ Sets Were Built

Universal Pictures is giving fans a look at how Jon M. Chu and his crew built the wonderful world of Oz for the upcoming Wicked films, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.

In a new behind-the-scenes video posted Wednesday (July 24), the director and his leading ladies narrate the process of erecting the live-action musical’s enormous, whimsical backdrops, with the filmmakers opting for practical sets as opposed to animation. “We knew that we wanted Wicked to be immersive,” Chu tells the camera. “What does it feel like to be in Oz? To feel it in your fingertips? If you want to be inside that world, you’ve got to build it.”

The video also features clips documenting how crew members constructed entire villages for Emerald City and Munchkinland, hand-painted individual bricks for the winding Yellow Brick Road, and planted approximately 9 million tulips. At one point, Chu ordered an actual 16-ton train for the scene in which Elphaba and Glinda travel to meet the Wizard of Oz, revealing that it took two days to arrive to set because of its colossal weight.

“A lot of it is real, physical, tangible sets,” Grande says in the video, marveling at the production’s ability to “create this world in a way we’ve never seen it before.”

The reel also includes new footage of costars Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh and Ethan Slater acting on set, plus a look at how the crew achieved Grande’s flying bubble special effect via blue-screen technology. The first of the two Wicked films is set to arrive Nov. 22, a week earlier than originally planned, while the second is slated for next year.

Watch Chu, Grande and Erivo explain the set-building magic of Wicked above.