The surprising details of Jonathan Bailey's transformation from Fiyero into Scarecrow in “Wicked: For Good”
- - The surprising details of Jonathan Bailey's transformation from Fiyero into Scarecrow in “Wicked: For Good”
Patrick GomezDecember 31, 2025 at 9:30 PM
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Jonathan Bailey getting made up as the Scarecrow for 'Wicked: For Good'
Glinda may be known for her "toss toss," but she's not the only one with hair game in the Wicked world.
From the minute he arrived at Shiz University, Jonathan Bailey's Winkie prince had an envious coif. But when it came time for hair and makeup department head Frances Hannon to design the character's look for Wicked: For Good, she wanted to reflect Fiyero's evolution in the time that passed between films.
Taking inspiration from Fiyero's Gale Force regalia, Hannon tells Entertainment Weekly she crafted a "large toupee" for Bailey with "blocks of gold through it to emulate the gold on the uniform."
When Fiyero becomes the Scarecrow (a four-hour process), "I kept the same shape of the hair but put all the textures of the field in — straw, hay, and dry grass," Hannon explains.
Prosthetics makeup designer Mark Coulier also sourced many types of burlap to create a flexible prosthetic that still allowed for subtle facial expressions. No simple sack for Bailey.
They also spent a significant time discussing the Scarecrow's nose.
"How should it end? How dark should the brown be on the little end? What's distracting? What's not?" Hannon says. "We looked at various shades. 'Should it just be burlap like the rest of it? Should it be brown? Should it be a lighter, darker shade?' So it was tiny nuances."
And ironically, Fiyero becoming nonhuman freed more of Bailey to surface: "We used Jonathan's natural dark-brown eyes to represent the earth of the field, whereas he had blue eyes as Fiyero. You could really see it was the Sexiest Man Alive coming through," Hannon says with a laugh.
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But it wasn't just Fiyero's wardrobe, hair, and makeup that Hannon and her team took such care with. They also were meticulous in preparing his horse — or should we say horses, since four were used in the film, each for different purposes.
Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures
Jonathan Bailey in 'Wicked: For Good'
Because the horses were different colors ("One was white, one was brown, and one dark brown…"), Hannon says the team had to shave them down before applying a dye brought in from Japan, which they knew would be safe for the steeds.
"Then all the horses were painted with iridescent color," Hannon continues. "[SFX makeup artist] David Stoneman and I designed it, because it had never been done before — using horse oil as the base and the iridescent added to it, which also came from Japan."
Talk about a horse of a different color.
A version of this story appears in a special Awardist 2026 Kickoff print edition.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
