The new Wicked movie has become a box-office sensation days after its premiere, but some fans are leaving cinemas confused about one detail in the film.
The feature film, which opened on November 22, is an adaption of the acclaimed Broadway musical Wicked, a retelling of The Wizard of Oz that explores the origins of two iconic witches: Elphaba, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West (played by Cynthia Erivo), and Glinda, the Good Witch (Ariana Grande).
In the 1939 movie—itself an adaptation of the L. Frank Baum novel—a key feature is Dorothy Gale's magical ruby slippers, given to her by Glinda to help her get home.
However, in Wicked, the slippers are silver, leading many on social media to question why.
"Now why couldn't they just make the shoes ruby," one user wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Sarah McGonagall, a model, photographer and makeup artist, shared the post and offered an explanation in a thread that has since gone viral, receiving more than 9 million views.
"There are actually multiple reasons. The first is the most obvious: in the original book by L Frank Baum, Dorothy's slippers are silver, with the illustrations by W.W. Denslow depicting them with a pointed toe and mary jane-style buckle. So when exactly did that change, and why?" she began.
Newsweek contacted McGonagall by email for further comment.
McGonagall mentioned the film's use of Technicolor, adding that "MGM was pulling out all the stops."
"They wanted to showcase as much color as possible, and use it to the very best of their ability. Each individual hue was painstakingly selected, with the set designers spending over a week just deciding which precise shade of yellow paint to use on the brick road," she wrote.
McGonagall also said another reason for the color change is that the 1939 movie is under copyright until 2035.
"In 2011, a court ruling determined that while the story and characters created by L. Frank Baum are technically public domain, any aspects of those pre-existing characters that were created specifically for the film (or any other work) are protected by copyright," she wrote.
She concluded her thread by reiterating the copyright distinctions between the silver slippers and the ruby slippers.
"So Dorothy's silver slippers? Public domain. You (or Wicked) can totally use them," she wrote. "Dorothy's ruby slippers? Created by MGM and protected under copyright. Don't even think about it. And that, my friends, is all of the reasons why they couldn't just make the shoes ruby."
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