Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of 'Wicked,' is named after 'The Wizard of Oz' author

The 'Wicked' movie is based on several previous ‘Oz’ adaptations

Gregory Maguire's novel "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West," published in 1995, is based on"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." It offers an adult-oriented retelling of the Oz story, focusing on Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. The book was then adapted for the stage, which premiered on Broadway in 2003. The Broadway musical was then adapted for the screen—the first film in the series debuted in 2024.

Over the years, Baum’s story has had several adaptations and reinterpretations

The original 1900 book, ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,’ has been adapted in various forms for various audiences. There’s been a Muppet-centric Oz, a 3D-generated Dorothy, and one that imagines an adult Dorothy living as a children’s author in New York, just to name a few.

Some believe L. Frank Baum wrote 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' on vacation

The writer vacationed in Macatawa, Michigan, in 1899. His great-grandson claims most of the book was written while staying there on the shores of Lake Michigan. The nearby town of Holland commemorated the book with the Oz Sculpture Garden.

EY 'Yip' Harburg is the lyricist behind 'The Wizard of Oz'

The 1939 film’s songs were written by composer Harold Arlen and lyricist EY “Yip” Harburg. In an early draft of "Over the Rainbow," the movie's most famous song, Harburg scribbled "Some day I’ll wish upon a star + wake + find the darkness far behind me,” which would eventually become the iconic line, “Some day I’ll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me.”

Shirley Temple was rumored to be a potential Dorothy

The child star—who was a huge fan of Baum’s books—mentioned in a 1988 autobiography that she’d heard she was being discussed for the role before Judy Garland was officially cast. She said that Garland was, ultimately, the right pick. “Sometimes, the gods know best,” she wrote.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

Minnelli is the goddaughter of Kay Thompson, the author of the 'Eloise' books

Many people speculate that Eloise, the little girl living at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in Thompson's popular series, is Minnelli. The actress, however, denies the claim. Still, people continue to theorize that Minnelli likely influenced the privileged, precocious character's traits.

Ursula K. Le Guin worked to dismantle fantasy's clichés

The author is one of the genre’s most legendary names, constructing high fantasies like “The Earthsea Cycle” that detail intricate new worlds. In 2004, she delivered a lecture criticizing books and movies that rely on a simple formula: white characters, Medieval settings, and a battle between good and evil. “Whenever I find a fantasy that is set in a genuinely imagined society and culture instead of this lazy-minded, recycled hokum,” she said, “I feel like setting off fireworks.”

The first ‘Harry Potter’ book was retitled for US readers

Scholastic changed "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone" to "Sorcerer’s Stone" in 1998, fearing the original title sounded too academic and might confuse American readers unfamiliar with the word’s magical meaning.

'Shoofly pie' was named after a molasses named after a mule named after a song

Although most people assumed the sweet dessert earned its name for its ability to attract flies, etymologists believe it can be traced back to a molasses brand named after a boxing mule (Shoofly the mule), who was named after a song ("Shoofly Don't Bother Me") that was a play on slang of the time.

Nobel Prize winner William Butler Yeats was fascinated by magic and the occult

The Irish poet and 1923 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature laid out his beliefs in a 1901 essay, entitled "Magic," and was a member of several organizations dedicated to occult and mystical practices.

A Disney architect designed Epic's headquarters

Epic Systems provides electronic medical records in the US—but its offices are far from bland. The HQ has five different campuses that are inspired by "Harry Potter," "The Wizard of Oz," and "Alice in Wonderland."

Imagining how genetics works in 'Harry Potter' and how muggle-born Hermione is a witch

Dr. Robert Pyatt, director of Sanford Health’s medical genetics lab, talks through real-world genetics scenarios in the Harry Potter series, from the Weasley's red hair and freckles to why Hermione, a witch, could be born to "muggle"—or nonmagical—parents.

Superstitious actors believe ‘Macbeth’ is cursed

Actors playing in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”—a story filled with ghosts, witches, and magic—call it the “Scottish play” out of superstition, a tradition since the play’s first production.

Broadway's nickname is 'the Great White Way'

Thanks to the advent of electricity, by the middle of the 19th century, theaters in the Broadway area were illuminated by lampposts and marquees. The nickname “the Great White Way” describes how it looked at night. The term is still used today.

Lady Wonder, the horse with supposed clairvoyant powers

Lady Wonder became widely known as a horse that shared her special powers by spelling out words by using blocks with letters. She reportedly helped solve the case of a missing young boy while also offering advice and sports predictions.

'Book of the Dead' spells were often written directly on the mummy bandages

Archaeologists have identified over 200 spells inscribed on various funerary objects, including coffins, scrolls, mummy wrappings, and more. Later historians compiled the spells in single volumes, giving them the cinematic name "Book of the Dead."

'Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be … when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am.'

-Author Arthur Miller (1915-2005) in "Death of a Salesman"

'There's a hell of a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.'

- Writer Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, and became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Check out Variety's picks for the best cosplay of Comic-Con 2024

Take a look at some of the best cosplay from Comic-Con 2024. Entries include a tiger-painted dog, Elphaba from "Wicked," and a man dressed as a slice of pizza.

King was outed as Bachman by a bookstore clerk

King published several books in the 1970s and '80s under the pen name Richard Bachman, a device that allowed him to publish outside the horror genre. Eventually, Bachman was unmasked when a bookshop clerk noticed similarities between the Bachman novel “Thinner” and some of King’s other titles. A 2024 study in the Journal of Computational Literary Studies used quantitative methods to find similarities between works published under Bachman and King, arguing that genuine literary voices are immutable, despite some authors’ efforts.

The word 'hoax' comes from the phrase 'hocus-pocus'

The famous phrase "hocus-pocus" combines liturgical Latin and gibberish. It's a silly series of words often said during magic tricks. The phrase naturally evolved into "hoax" over time and became a standard English word around the year 1800.

Labubu dolls are based on characters from an illustrated book series

The plush dolls are based on characters from Kasing Lung's "The Monsters" book series. The collectible toys became a sensation when they were first released in 2019, with fans using the dolls as fashion accessories.

'The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them'

- Ida B. Wells, co-founder of the NAACP (1862-1931)

An 'EGOT' is one of the most sought-after achievements in entertainment

EGOT stands for "Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony," an informal title for the performers who've won all four awards. Liza Minnelli, Elton John, and others have earned the title, though other superstars, like Bruce Springsteen, are just one award away from joining the exclusive club.

Advertising powerhouse Mary Wells Lawrence was the first female CEO of a public company listed on the NYSE

The TV show “Mad Men’s” character Peggy Olson is inspired by Wells Lawrence, who founded ad agency Wells Rich Greene in 1966. Wells Lawrence is also known for her famous Alka-Seltzer campaign slogan, “plop plop fizz fizz.”

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

Ebola species have historically been named after where they were discovered, stigmatizing residents who live there, including Bundibugyo, in Uganda.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.