What You Need to Know About Emerald City

This week, NBC will launch its ambitious new series Emerald City, which will introduce viewers to a strange and dangerous version of Oz. Emerald City is one of the more intriguing new shows premiering this winter, with promises of violence, magic, and jawdropping visuals.

To help get viewers ready for Friday’s premiere (at 9 PM EST), we’ve provided a handy primer for Emerald City, filled with as much information as we could find about the new show. Don’t worry, we shied away from spoilers, although we do give away some basic information about the show’s major characters found on Emerald City‘s webpage.

Not Your Grandparent’s Oz

The magical world of Oz has delighted children and adults alike since Frank Baum first wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz way back in 1900. Countless movie studioes have adapted Baum’s Oz books in some form. The most famous of these is obviously The Wizard of Oz, which starred a young Judy Garland, but we’ve also seen musicals like The Wiz and Wicked to modern-day Hollywood blockbusters like Oz: The Great and Powerful.

Emerald City might be the boldest adaptation yet. While even more serious adaptations have retained Oz’s lighthearted whimsy, Emerald City has reinterpreted Oz as a more serious fantasy world. The Munchkins are now a tribe of barbarians, while the Yellow Brick Road is now a road lined with dangerous opium-like flowers. 

At the heart of Emerald City is a conflict between magic and science. The Wizard, played by Vincent D’Onofrio has banned magic, earning the ire of a powerful coven of witches. In order to keep magic stamped out, the Wizard uses mechanical winged monkeys and drones to keep the masses at bay. 

Dorothy, a young nurse armed with a handgun and a police dog, brings chaos to Oz when she gets dumped from the sky and accidentally kills one of the witches. With a magic pair of gloves, Dorothy is sought out by both the Wizard and witches as she tries to find her way home.

New Versions of Familiar Characters

Emerald City will feature strange new versions of many classic characters from the Oz books and movies. Here’s a rundown of who we’ll see in Emerald City, along with their book counterparts:

Dorothy Gale: Dorothy isn’t a child in Emerald City; instead, she’s a 20 year old nurse played by Adria Arjona who gets swept into Oz while hiding in a police cruiser in a storm.

Toto: Instead of tiny Terrier, Toto is now a German Shepherd and trained police dog. Dorothy meets Toto just moments before they get tossed into Oz, but he quickly becomes her primary protector and companion. Oh, and Toto gets his name early in the series from the Munchkins, instead of from Dorothy. 

The Scarecrow: Instead of a reanimated stuffed man, the Scarecrow is an amnesiac played by Dracula’s Oliver Jackson-Cohen, crucified and left to die alongside the Yellow Brick Road. Dorothy finds the man, nurses him back to health, and names him Lucas.

The Wizard: Instead of faking magic like in the books, Emerald City’s Wizard uses his knowledge of modern technology to conquer and rule over Oz. Played by Daredevil‘s Vincent D’Onofrio, the Wizard uses drones and mechanical flying monkeys to battle the forces of magic in his land.

The Cowardly Lion: The Cowardly Lion is now an armored warrior named Eamonn who is sent by the Wizard to hunt Dorothy. Eamonn is played by Homeland actor Mido Hamada.

The Witches: Right now, we know of three witches: East, West, and Glinda. East, played by Black Panther actress Florence Kasumba, looks to be the darkest of the three and seems to be a presence in the series even after her death at the hand of Dorothy. Glinda (Joely Richardson) and West (Ana Ularu) are East’s two surviving sisters and have an uneasy truce with the Wizard at the start of the series. 

Other characters seen in early episodes include Tip and Jack, two characters from later Oz books that become a major part of the Oz mythos. 

A Not So Smooth Road to Production

Emerald City didn’t have an easy road to becoming a television series. NBC first ordered the show back in 2014, with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles producer Josh Friedman announced as showrunner. Friedman left the project just before it entered active production, leading to NBC cancelling the show. Nearly a year later, NBC changed their mind and ultimately put TV scriptwriter David Schulner as executive prodcuer. 

In order to give the series a unified look and feel, NBC announced that movie director Tarsem Singh would direct the entire first season of Emerald City. Singh previously directed movies like Immortals and Self/less, and is known for his elaborate visuals. Emerald City is no exception, as the show filmed all over Europe to give the show a truly fantastic setting with few CGI enhanced backdrops. 

Comic book fans might also recognize one of the show’s writers. Kelly Sue DeConnick, the writer of Pretty Deadly, Bitch Planet, and Captain Marvel, was part of Emerald City‘s writing room during the first season. 

A Very Adult Version of Oz

Early reviews have described Emerald City as “Game of Thrones meets The Wizard of Oz”, and the show doesn’t shy away from certain adult themes. Previews show Dorothy and Lucas sharing several steamy kisses, and the Wicked Witch of the West runs a brothel at the start of the show. There’s also plenty of violence, assassinations, and political intrigue, just like in Game of Thrones.

More importantly, there’s also a lot of complicated themes in Emerald City. Obviously, science vs. religion (or in this case magic) is one of the show’s biggest themes, but Emerald City also addresses guns, social classism, and gender identity during the first season. How society views its leadership is also addressed and early reviews have noted some similarities between the Wizard and certain political figures that rose to power last year. 

Another major theme is Emerald City is empowerment, a theme that executive producer David Schulmer claims came straight from the original Oz books. At a press event for Emerald City, Schulmer said that the Oz books “are about, if anything, female empowerment,” and noted that L. Frank Baum’s mother was an early suffragette. He also added that, despite the comparisons to Game of Thrones, fans shouldn’t expect to see any sexual violence in the series.