"Wicked" Author Explains the Origins of Shiz University — and What Harry Potter Has to Do With It
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/shiz-university-121624-1-fb987b3485024a33a31910ea4e12c782.jpg)
12/16/2024 02:13 PM
Is Shiz University based on Hogwarts? Gregory Maguire opened up about the inspiration behind the book's most magical setting
Universal Pictures
Shiz University in Jon M. Chu's 'Wicked.'The author behind the original Wicked story is opening about the film's setting — the magical Shiz University — on the heels the blockbuster movie's first few record-breaking weeks at the box office.
Author Gregory Maguire, who penned the 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which the Tony-winning Broadway musical Wicked is based upon, opened up to NBC Insider about the origins of the magic university where Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba and Ariana Grande's Glinda hone their witchy skills.
According to Maguire, Shiz draws lots of inspiration from real-life institutions of higher learning, including Oxford University and the University of Cambridge in England and Harvard University — but decidedly not Hogwarts of Harry Potter fame.
"With all due respect to my colleagues in the UK ... Wicked was published in 1995, before the first description of Harry Potter's Hogwarts was published two years later in 1997," Maguire told the outlet.
"Some fans of Wicked have guessed that Hogwarts inspired Shiz, but chronology doesn't support that thesis. Philip Pullman's alternate-reality Oxford in The Golden Compass was published about two months before Wicked, and Shiz seems to me as much like Pullman's institution of higher learning as anyplace else."
Related: All About the Wicked Movie Starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande
Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures
Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda in 'Wicked.'In addition to Pullman's series, Maguire also likened Shiz — designed for the screen by production designer Nathan Crowley — to the work of twentieth century writers Ursula K. Le Guin and T. H. White.
"For the seriously rabid fans, I point out that in Ursula K. Le Guin's well-regarded novel, A Wizard of Earthsea, the protagonist, Ged, attends a school for mages (magicians) on the island of Roke," the author continued.
"While I admire the novel from a clinical perspective, it isn't one I read in childhood and is not one to which I feel warm regard, or to which I feel beholden, either. The training of a young bright spark is a traditional tale. T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone, in which Wart is tutored not in magic but in the sciences by Merlin the Magician, is probably more influential, deep down. I loved that book."
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The fictional city and college also took heavy inspiration from Chicago, specifically during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, as scholars believe that's where Baum got many of his ideas.
"To L. Frank Baum, in the lead-up to writing Wizard of Oz, Chicago was important to him. Evan I. Schwartz and others suspect the World's Columbian Exposition, fully illuminated by electricity, might have inspired the Emerald City," the author added. "So Shiz-Chicago makes sense. I also knew I wanted some places in Oz not all to sound so cozy and Anglo, like Far Applerue and Illswater (in Munchkinland)."
Related: New Wicked Books You'll Want to Treasure 'For Good' — See the Covers Here! (Exclusive)
Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures
Marissa Bode as 'Nessarose' and Cynthia Erivo as 'Elphaba.'Some of the novels that inspired Maguire weren't magical at all, but instead works that told tales of grandiose real-life educational institutions, including Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and E.M. Forster's Maurice.
"As with most of my descriptions of places in Wicked," he said. "I wanted the portrait of Shiz to be familiar enough to be welcoming to my readers, but distinct enough to be recognizable on its own merits."
According to production designer Crowley, the film adaptation was able to take the world-building to another level, incorporating small details that make the magical college feel not only functional, but complete.
"This project stands as a testament to the remarkable skill and dedication of our exceptional art, locations, greens, set dressing and construction teams," he states in the production notes, per NBC. "It is highly likely that I will never encounter a set of this immense complexity in my career again."
Wicked is in theaters now.
