Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Wicked by Gregory Maguire and the Broadway musical!

Since the 2024 two-part Wicked movie is finally coming to the big screen, offering excitement for fans of the Broadway musical and Gregory Maguire’s eponymous book. However, audience shouldn’t go into the movies expecting them to be exactly like the source material.

After all, the 2024 movie is 2 hours and 40 minutes long, and the Broadway musical is 2 hours and 30 minutes without the 15-minute intermission. Since Wicked: Part 1 is as long as the musical, there’s bound to be new story elements introduced. While most of the book elements couldn’t work in a PG-rated movie, the movie could introduce the best part of the original book – The Clock of the Time Dragon.

The Wicked Movie Could Include The Clock Of The Time Dragon From The Book

The Clock Of The Time Dragon Adds To The Lore Of Oz

One of the book elements that fans want to see in the 2024 movie is The Clock of the Time Dragon. In Wicked by Gregory Maguire, The Clock of the Time Dragon is a magical show that travels around Oz on wheels, telling stories to audiences. The entire thing looks like a tower with multiple stories. At the top is a painted-on clock and a mechanical dragon. The mechanized puppet show has the magical ability to show anything past, present, or future about an individual.

At the start of the book, Elphaba is born inside The Clock of the Time Dragon, foreshadowing the fact that she will become one of the most powerful magicians in Oz. Then, at the end, the traveling show reveals to her the truth about The Wizard secretly being a part of Elphaba’s family tree. This part of the book offers her the opportunity to react to the truth – something she doesn’t get in the musical. Given its significant role in the book, the Wicked movies could add in The Clock of the Time Dragon and scenes related to it.

Moreover, The Clock of the Time Dragon could also deepen the debate that the Wicked characters have about the morality of sorcery. Throughout the musical, many characters fear and despise magic rather than embracing it. This attitude is present in the book, too, and the fearmongering naysayers use the traveling show to add fuel to the fire. Because the themes align, The Clock of the Time Dragon would fit perfectly into the two-part Wicked movie.

The Clock Of The Time Dragon’s Inclusion Is A Major Change To Wicked's Broadway Musical

The Wicked Broadway Musical Barely References The Clock Of The Time Dragon

Though it’s exciting to think about The Clock of the Time Dragon appearing in the Wicked movie, the choice would be a significant change to the Broadway musical. The Wicked book is dark and filled with adult themes, so the musical had to leave out many parts of the story and only vaguely reference others. The most disappointing omission is The Clock of the Time Dragon. The Broadway musical doesn’t completely ignore this part of the book, but it minimizes it, removing the best parts.

The show only includes two quick verbal references to “the time dragon clock,” providing almost no context about what the dragon does or why Glinda is talking to it.

The top of the Wicked musical set has an iconic dragon, and the stage looks like the inside of a clock, implying that the entirety of the show takes place within The Clock of the Time Dragon – an Easter egg for book fans. However, the show only includes two quick verbal references to “the time dragon clock,” providing almost no context about what the dragon does or why Glinda is talking to it.

It’s easy to miss these pieces of dialogue entirely, leaving questions about why the dragon is there at all. Even if an audience member picks up on the two lines of dialogue, anyone unfamiliar with the book would have zero clue why the dragon would know anything about The Wicked Witch of the West. It’s possible they’d even think the dragon is a supernatural creature instead of a prophetic, magical, mechanized puppet.

The Wicked Movie Would Need To Sanitize The Book Element

The Clock Of The Time Dragon Has R-rated Elements In The Wicked Book

While The Clock of the Time Dragon would be a great addition to Wicked, the movie would need to make some changes to the book so that it could fit in the PG rating. The traveling show includes graphic visuals of orgies and drugs that simply wouldn’t be appropriate to show in a family movie.

Luckily, these controversial parts of The Clock of the Time Dragon aren’t necessary for the book element to be narratively impactful. After all, most of the adult elements in the traveling show felt like they were added for shock value rather than benefitting the narrative. The Wicked movie could keep the basic idea of a prophetic magical dragon show that can tell anyone their past, present, or future while removing the adult elements.