Filmmaker Adam McKay Ominously Predicts ‘Wicked’ Could Be ‘Banned’ in the U.S. Within 5 Years: America Has ‘Never Been More Right Wing and Propagandized’

Adam McKay, the former Saturday Night Live head writer and director and writer of films including Anchorman and The Big Short, offered a ominous prediction about the future for the Wicked movie, saying it could be “banned” outright in the U.S. within the next three to five years.

The film, technically Wicked: Part I, is based on the first half of the hit Broadway musical Wicked, which was based on the 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, which in turn was inspired by the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz and the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and sequels by L. Frank Baum.

In other words, this story has been part of the American entertainment landscape for over a century, enjoyed by millions of readers, theatergoers, and film buffs, but McKay nonetheless thought the country’s political landscape was heading to a place where it could be prohibited.

On X, formerly Twitter, McKay praised the film’s “storytelling”

as “right up there as one of the most radical big studio Hollywood movies ever made,” characterizing it as “nakedly about radicalization in the face of careerism, fascism, propaganda.”

He added that he found it “striking” that the film was “coming out NOW when America has never been more right wing and propagandized.”

A follower replied to McKay’s tweets that he would “have to see it when it gets to streaming” now after reading the filmmaker’s comments, and McKay then offered a somber prediction that “[i]f America keeps going on the track it is I wouldn’t be surprised to see the movie banned in 3-5 years.”

McKay continued posting multiple tweets about the film to respond to those who thought his prediction was “crazy”:

It’s bizarre how many people think the possibility of movies, books, music being banned in the U.S. in the near future is a “crazy” idea.There’s a whole crowd that really has zero idea what’s going on big picture.Even stranger a lot of them argue that if you still can see the movie or read the book in any way then it’s not a “ban.”I can’t tell if they’re really as out of it as they seem or just wigged out about the time we live in.There’s also this thing where people take a

passing comment and turn it into an absolute, wide reaching pronouncement.

He continued that he didn’t know if any specific movies or books would be “banned on state or Fed level but I do know this is in the works,” linking to a Democracy Now article headlined “House GOP Working to Push Through Bill That Would Let Trump Shut Down Nonprofits.”

“America has always gotten the Heisenberg blue meth propaganda,” McKay added, continuing to reply to tweets lamenting the shift away from consumers owning physical copies of media and complaining about the lack of a “functioning news media.”

 

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