Gregory Maguire ’76 felt “as timid as Dorothy going to the Emerald City” when he arrived as a first-year student at the University at Albany. He labeled a folder with course schedules and materials with the words, “Oz Matters.”

“I never imagined I’d be coming back more than 50 years later to talk about a movie based on my book,” he said of the staggering success of Wicked and its many iterations.

Maguire returned to campus as a headliner at the NYS Writers Institute’s Albany Film Festival on March 29 to discuss the blockbuster film Wicked: Part 1 (more than $700 million grossed globally) based on the blockbuster Broadway musical (seen by 65 million people worldwide) based on the blockbuster 1995 novel (over 5 million copies sold).

Maguire spent a week watching the filming of Wicked on a set in London — curiously, about 10 miles from where he started writing the novel in 1993.

“I watched the scene where Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba comes down the stairway of the Ozdust Ballroom, and she made me fall in love even before she crossed the room,” Maguire recalled. “It’s the emotional heart of the story where Ariana Grande as Glinda realizes she has not been good. They did take after take, absolutely inhabiting that sorrow. Each time, I wanted to rush onto the set and hug both women. They are extraordinary talents.”

Maguire was given the back of the director’s chair with his name on it as a memento of his time on set. He’s seen Wicked: Part 1 six times, took his daughter to the Hollywood premiere and is anxiously awaiting the release of Wicked: Part 2 on Nov. 21.

Maguire also signed copies of the just-published seventh book in his popular The Wicked Years Series, a prequel titled Elphie: A Wicked Childhood, about the future Wicked Witch of the West. It became an instant New York Times bestseller. The book’s dedication reads, “For Idina Menzel and for Cynthia Erivo and for all the Elphabas, past and to come.”

“This story is bigger than me, and millions of people all over the world have read it and now seen the movie,” Maguire said. “I felt a sense of duty to explain what happened to Elphie from the age of 3 until she went to Shiz University. I used to stand away from it, but Elphie is me. I own that now with a mixture of humility and pride. She is smarter and braver and can sing better than I can, but Elphie is the green shadow that sticks to me.”