A brief history of the Glinda & Elphaba couple ship in 'Wicked'

Gelphie, always and forever.

No matter who the leading women of Wicked end up with in the novel, Broadway musical, or film versions, the "true love story" of this story has always been between Elphaba and Glinda.

Fans who ship them as a couple have nicknamed the pairing as "Gelphie." Not only has this been one of the biggest lesbian ships on Broadway, but the new Wicked movie starring Cynthia Erivo (as Elphaba) and Ariana Grande (as Glinda) is making this even more popular (pun intended)!

Keep scrolling to learn more about the history of this ship, and why Wicked fans have loved it so much over the years!

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo have talked about queer Glinda (several times).

Throughout the Wicked film press tour, both Grande and Erivo have spoken several times about this layered relationship between Glinda and Elphaba.

In an interview with Gay Times, Erivo expressed that Elphaba and Glinda's relationship is "true love" — and that she doesn't "think there's anything wrong with celebrating the deep connection the both of them have."

Grande was a little more direct, saying that she does not see the relationship between Glinda and Elphaba as purely platonic. "Whether it's romantic or platonic, Glinda might be a little in the closet."

In a Variety cover story, Grande once again brought up her queer interpretation of Glinda. The pop star and actress explained:

"I think she's a person who loves so much, and I do think that it goes beyond gender, and I think that's a common theme in Oz. I also think that the ways in which she loves Elphaba so much, and that forgiveness and that unconditional love that they share — I think they're in love with each other. I know, yes, it's platonic … But we'll talk about it more in depth in movie two."

Elphaba and Glinda were much more than friends in the original Wicked book.

Wicked fans shipping these two characters is a tradition that goes back a long way, even farther back than the Broadway production that opened in 2003. The musical is based on the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of the West, which was published in 1995.

Author Gregory Maguire has said that the two women have "intentional" sexual and romantic tension in the novel, noting:

"That was intentional, and it was modest and restrained and refined in such a way that one could imagine that one of those two young women had felt more than the other and had not wanted to say it," Maguire told Them. "Or perhaps, because a novelist can't write every scene, perhaps when the lights were out and the novelist was out having a smoke in the back alley, the girls had sex in the bed on the way to the Emerald City. I wanted to propose this possibility, but I did not want to make a declarative statement about."

While they may not have sex on the page, the two women do kiss in the 1995 novel.

Broadway elevated the Gelphie ship to a new level.

The characters of Glinda and Elphaba were originated on Broadway by Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, and audiences pretty much immediately started to ship the two characters. Since then, many other actors who played the roles have added fuel to the shipping fire.

Chenoweth has also gotten in on the shipping fun. After Grande said in an interview that she thought perhaps Glinda was "a little in the closet," Chenoweth wrote in the comments section: "I thought so too way back when…"

The movie's approach to Glinda and Elphaba's relationship.

New shippers have obviously been born now that the 2024 musical film version has been released. From the very first trailers for the film, fans have been pointing out the gayest moments between Elphaba and Glinda.

Then, deleted scenes of Wicked were released showing the two cuddling, sharing even more secrets, and having one-on-one fun together… and shippers were even happier.

With the sequel movie Wicked: For Good in sight, fans who have been shipping these two characters are ready to digest even more Gelphie content.