The song, performed by Cynthia Erivo, is one of two new original songs written by composer Stephen Schwartz.

The Wicked: For Good visual effects team had a big challenge after seeing ‘No Place Like Home’ scene: more animals!

The song, performed by Cynthia Erivo, is one of two new original songs written by composer Stephen Schwartz.

By Gerrad Hall

Gerrad Hall is an editorial director at **, overseeing movie, awards, and music coverage. He is also host of *The Awardist* podcast, and has cohosted EW's live Oscars, Emmys, SAG, and Grammys red carpet shows. He has appeared on *Good Morning America*, *The Talk*, *Access Hollywood*, *Extra!*, and other talk shows, delivering the latest news on pop culture and entertainment.

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December 4, 2025 12:00 p.m. ET

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Before Dorothy skips her way down the Yellow Brick Road to Emerald City in *Wicked: For Good*, the animals of Oz under attack by the Wizard uproot a chunk of the colorful path, digging an entrance to a tunnel that will take them to presumed safety in the mysterious Land Beyond Oz.

Fleeing is not an option for Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba, whose entire mission has been to help and protect the animals, even as she's vilified in the process. She begs them to stay and fight with her — because this is where they were born, where they belong, it's everything they know...it's their home. And, as the title of her new song (written for the movie by composer Stephen Schwartz) states, there's "No Place Like Home."

"It is a very special scene. It is not only a new song, but we're seeing inside Elphaba's soul there," Oscar-nominated visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman (whose work you can also see in the exclusive video above) explains to **. "She's almost convincing them, and then her past catches up with her, when the Lion shows up."

The seven-minute sequence was one of the film's more complicated ones, Helman says, because Erivo had to interact with creatures that, of course, weren't present during filming.

Before and after with visual effects during 'No Place Like Home' scene in 'Wicked: For Good'.

Universal Pictures

His priority? "You want to make sure that the actor is comfortable enough and you are protecting that actor so that the performances are looking for the truth," he says. "The actors are always looking for the truth. Visual effects are the same thing. If there's no understanding of what the scene is on the actor's part, then the visual effects don't work."

And there's actually a lot of science involved. Helman and the other department heads — including cinematographer Alice Brooks, production designer Nathan Crowley, and editor Myron Kerstein — worked with director Jon M. Chu to get, Helman says, "the big picture" of the scene.

Then they did some data gathering: took photos and light measurements, laid out set design and character blocking, figured out actor eye lines, and more — just for the production phase.

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In this case, Helman and his team knew that the point of view would either be from that of Elphaba or the animals (minus the giraffe), so everything would "pretty much be at eye level. So when you put a really wide lens right there, you start seeing into all the lights, the ceiling of that set. We captured as much as possible in camera, and then visual effects came in and completed the story."

That meant filling the background with more trees, plants, and flowers to add depth to the forest — and, of course, adding the animals...lots of animals.

"The idea is that you are covering an epic story, meaning that this is not something that is localized, that this is just happening in this specific place. We are assuming that there are some other holes that have been put into the Yellow Brick Road," Helman explains. "So we started with about 10 or 15 animals, and we realized that it just wasn't enough to give the idea that this is a general thing that is happening throughout Oz and the feeling that the animals are fleeing little by little. There were some versions of it in which there were too many animals. So we started filling all that stuff in until it felt satisfying."

Before and after wish visual effects in 'No Place Like Home' scene in 'Wicked: For Good'.

Universal Pictures

Fortunately for Erivo, she wasn't acting opposite nothing.

"We had a team — an animal crew — it's about 15 people that acted like animals," Helman says. "They knew the lines, they knew the song, they reacted and interacted with Elphaba, with Cynthia. A tennis ball is a lot less emotive, it turns out, than a person that is taking the place of an animal."

That physical interaction was most important with Dulcibear, who helped raise Elphaba after her mother's death. In this case, a tall actor wore extra padding to mimic the bear's size so that Erivo could accurately embrace what would become Dulcibear in postproduction.

But this Dulcibear doesn't look the same as she did when we last saw her.

"Some of the animals that we see in the first movie, they're well dressed and,they're well kept and well fed," Helman notes, but "they have gone through a transformation, and right now they're not very well off. So they are carrying their belongings on their backs, they're disheveled, and they're worried because they're leaving home."

The scene may feature a musical number from Elphaba, but the animals also have to give an emotional performance — all via visual effects. Helman knew exactly what to do.

Before and after with visual effects of Dulcibear and Elphaba embracing in 'Wicked: For Good'.

Universal Pictures

"If you talk to anybody about, 'Where are you from?' it doesn't matter where you're from, there's a warm feeling about it. It's not necessarily about the place, it's the experiences that come with that place that you carry with you," he says. "I know because I'm from Argentina, and sometimes it's not necessarily the place, it is all the emotions, all the memories that I have of a specific, very warm place where I was raised. I think we all, as artists, have that feeling. We could have gone all kinds of ways, but it's a very good example of why we say that visual effects support the story, support the storytelling. Without that, you wouldn't have that sense of completion, satisfaction."

***Check out more from EW's *The Awardist*, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in TV, movies, and more.***

So forget that quote, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain," because in this case, Helman is that man, and he's legit — overseeing the work of more than 1,000 artists around the world who created true visual effects magic to bring not just this scene but the entire movie to life: more than 1,800 visual effects shots totaling two hours, two minutes of *Wicked: For Good*'s two hours, 18 minutes of runtime.

"Almost every shot in the movie is a visual effects shot," he says, "even if you don't know it."**

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