‘It goes beyond gender’: Ariana Grande addresses whether Glinda is queer and the fan-fics are writing themselves

We’re about a week into the new year and the emerald green traces of Wicked continue to dominate headlines, with Ariana Grande serving us the latest slice of Oz gossip. 

The singer/actress, who portrayed Glinda the Good Witch in the blockbuster movie musical, spoke of her character’s potentially queer origins in a recent interview. For those unaware of the Oz gossip column (which gives Lady Whistledown a run for her money), it’s long been thought among fans of both the Wicked Broadway musical and the original book upon which it was based that Glinda and her co-lead Elphaba are gay.

Grande addressed this long-held fan belief while holding space on the never-ending Wicked press tour, telling Gay Times in November that Glinda “might be a little in the closet.” Then, Kristen Chenoweth — Grande’s Broadway Glinda predecessor — echoed the idea of Glinda’s queerness, saying she “thought so too way back when.”

Now, the actress has elaborated on the theory in a new interview with Variety, saying her pastel pink character is a “person who loves so much” that it “goes beyond gender. Grande — who has spoken on her decision not to label her own sexuality in the past — went on to say that Glinda “loves Elphaba so much,” and gushed at the “unconditional love that they share.”

“I think they’re in love with each other,” Grande added, before hinting that this theme will be explored further in the future. “But we’ll talk about it more in depth in movie two,” the actress said. We won’t know just how deep the characters’ queerness is explored until Wicked: For Good premieres in November, but fans already have a few ideas. “She basically said sexuality doesn’t exist in Oz and everyone loves whoever they want to,” one X user wrote, with another questioning whether Grande’s comments “mean we’re getting a queer Glinda in the Wicked movie?”

While Grande admitted that the characters’ relationship is “platonic,” her suggestion that there’s something deeper at play isn’t too far-fetched, at least according to author Gregory Maguire. Last month, the writer of the original Wicked book, subtitled The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, confirmed that the gay undertones of the two protagonists’ relationship were “intentional.” Maguire, who is himself a gay man, said he created the characters “in such a way that one could imagine that one of those two young women had felt more than the other and had not wanted to say it,” Maguire said. 

In the eventual film version of Wicked, some gay themes were evidently too apparent for Kuwait, which banned the film’s theatrical run amid concerns Glinda and Elphaba were queer. That hasn’t stopped Wicked from being beloved among gay audiences, not least because many of the film’s stars are queer. Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba, is bisexual, while Jonathan Bailey (who portrays Prince Fiyero) and Bowen Yang (who plays Pfannee) are both gay. So prominent is all this queer joy that some Wicked fans have gone ahead and given Glinda and Elphaba a power couple name, as they’re hitherto known as ‘Gelphie’. 

With all that, I almost expect For Good to feature a pride march along the yellow brick road, but given its length, I imagine there’d be countless exhausted munchkins. Good luck, Boq!