Once upon a time, in the Land of Oz, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg were vying for the rights to play Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. That's right, before Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were cast in the musical version of Wicked, several other actresses were vying for the role in what would be a very different film than the one we got.

In a new article in Vanity Fair magazine, producer Marc Platt (and several other key members of the production) described the many different iterations of the film that nearly came to fruition during its long development.

It took decades to adapt Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel of the same name, but several things happened in the process that could have resulted in a very different movie coming to audiences.

For example, did you know that for most of its development, the filmmakers considered making it as a straight drama without music?

It's true: Pratt and his team had spent years trying to bring the story of “The Wicked Witch of the West” to the theater, but composer Stephen Schwartz approached them with the idea of first turning it into a musical.

According to Pratt, when he became head of Universal Pictures, the film version was already in development and the book was “initially optioned by Demi Moore's company.”

According to novelist McGuire, “Whoopi Goldberg and Claire Danes expressed interest in the first six months. Salma Hayek was also interested, as was Laurie Metcalf.

However, Moore and her company Moving Pictures pursued the rights most strongly, and the actress was willing to take on the role of Elphaba. According to her producing partner Suzanne Todd, “I think by day she could do either, but at that moment it was definitely the role of Elphaba.”

The actress was also a member of the cast of the film.

“I used to say I could imagine Demi Moore naked and green on the cover of Vanity Fair,” McGuire added.

“But who would have played Glinda to Moore's Elphaba,” Todd confirmed, “is Michelle Pfeiffer, Emma Thompson, or Nicole Kidman.

It was only a few years later that Schwartz's musical dream became a reality. It also cracked the biggest screenwriting problem that arose in adapting the novel, which is dense and full of internal monologues.

Pratt says: “In a musical, the characters can sing what they feel to the audience and to the camera. That opened the door to storytelling.” Thus began the path to “Wicked” becoming a Broadway musical smash hit, premiering in 2003 with Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth as Elphaba and Glinda, respectively.

And thanks to the musical's success, the complete version of “Wicked” that we know and love today was born. While Demi Moore's and Whoopi Goldberg's versions of “Wicked” would have been a sight to behold, we are happy with what we saw on the screen.