lucynewlife said: "Jeffrey Karasarides said: "lucynewlife said: "Globefan said: "Cynthia's Elphie is probably the closest we'll ever get to Elphie from the book on film."
Although personally I'd much rather we just get an adaptation of the books than the quasi book/musical/original that the film is going for."
On a recent Next Best Picture podcast, Matt Neglia was recapping this year's CinemaCon with Dan Bayer and Josh Parham. When they discussed reports of the Wicked footage, they still questioned how splitting it into two parts was going to work given that the stage version is two and a half hours long. Clearly, neither of them are aware that the filmmakers are trying to flesh things out with stuff from the Gregory Maguire novel that weren't included in the musical."
To be fair, I don't think a lot of people who aren't digging deep into the film know about that and just heard "splitting into 2 parts" without looking more into it. Although someone who is recapping CinemaCon should maybe do more research!
Personally, I do wonder just what they will actually include from the novel, because so much of the novel's events and characterizations are distinctly different from the musical's character and narrative paths, and would require completely different set-ups and story beats than the frame stage musical provides.
I get the feeling that a lot of it will be vaguely connected snippets that might reference bits in the book rather than actual story points. Like how we have a casting call for Young Nessa, so we may see more of Elphaba & Nessa's childhood. And we'll likely get more of Glinda and Elphaba developing a friendship, perhaps even depicting how they formed a friendship group with Boq, Fiyero, etc, for a while. Maybe we'll get some watered down version of the Philosophy Club scene but instead of drugs and sex it's a SFW show that references the darker political underpinnings going on in Oz.
But as for actual story points? I just don't know what they could actually put in there. Dillamond being murdered and Morrible being implicated, instead of him disappearing and being kept by the Wizard? They would have to change the confrontation with the Wizard in Part 2 post-Wonderful, of course.
But for instance, I don't think they'll have Elphaba join a nunnery or try to find Fiyero's family for forgiveness, since both of these things require a massive deviation from the musical's basic story points. And it'd all have to take place in Part 2, since Part 1 ends with Defying Gravity. Too much to cram in there. I very much doubt Lir will be a part of things."
I wish they could somehow find a way to put Liir in there, even just as a nod by implying Elphaba is pregnant at the end or something. (I know they won’t do that, lol.) He’s my favorite character in the books. 
"Was uns befreit, das muss stärker sein als wir es sind." -Tanz der Vampire