“Wicked's” Author Shared The Brutal Meaning Behind Elphaba’s Last Name, And People Are Obsessed

It’s fair to say that Wicked has been having a bit of a moment in recent months, entirely thanks to the movie adaptation that was released back in November, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Prior to the film, the story was perhaps best known for its stage show, which you may be surprised to learn isn’t its actual origin.

In fact, Wicked’s roots actually trace back to a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire called Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which was, in turn, inspired by the 1900 L. Frank Baum book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and its famous 1939 film adaptation.

Luckily for us, Gregory took part in a “Writing Wicked” panel at BroadwayCon on Sunday, where he generously shared some insight into his process when writing the book. Gregory was joined by Winnie Holzman, who wrote the script for the stage adaptation of Wicked and co-wrote the two movies.

Winnie later detailed changing Glinda’s last name when she adapted Gregory’s book because he had given her “a long name” in the novel, and she wanted something “a little shorter” like Elphaba, whose last name is Thropp. She offered the fun fact that she settled on “Upland” for Glinda in tribute to Gregory, who confirmed that he has lived at “three different addresses” with “Upland” in the street name.

Returning the favor, Gregory explained why he chose “Thropp” to be Elphaba’s last name. He told the crowd: “Nobody has ever asked me where Elphaba’s last name comes from, her name is Elphaba Thropp.”

This is, of course, a reference to Elphaba’s sister Nessarose’s death in the story, and the brutal reality of Gregory’s thought process left Wicked fans absolutely gagged when his quote surfaced on X. Reacting to a viral Wicked Update account tweet about what the author had said, one person wrote: “i just thropped to my knees.”

But Gregory isn’t all sass, and he also got serious as he reflected on the deeper philosophy behind Wicked while sharing the impact he hoped his book and the musical would have on audiences. He said: “The place that you arrive at the end of the musical is the identical place that I wanted people to arrive in the end of my novel, which was a lump in the throat and a reminder that what literature — whether it be theater, whether it be novels — brings us to is a reminder of how little time we have to do good with our lives.”