Adam McKay: ‘Radical’ ‘Wicked’ Movie Could Be Banned in ‘3 to 5 Years’

Filmmaker Adam McKay “wouldn’t be surprised” if Wicked were banned in the U.S. in “three to five years,” considering the state of politics in America today.

Following the film’s brief ban in Kuwait, which local media speculated was due to its LGBTQ cast and queer-affirming comments from the film’s stars, McKay said that America is headed in a similar direction as the Middle Eastern country, which is one of the strictest when it comes to media bans. The country banned Barbie last year for its discourse on gender.

“On a pure storytelling level, Wicked part one is right up there as one of the most radical big studio Hollywood movies ever made,” McKay wrote on X Tuesday, adding that the film is “nakedly about radicalization in the face of careerism, fascism, propaganda.” That “radicalization” in a big budget film may not be shown freely in America without bans in the future, McKay speculated, “if America keeps going on the track.”

“America has never been more right wing and propagandized,” he continued in his X thread on the topic. “I don’t know if specifically any movie or book will be banned on state or [federal] level, but I do know this is in the works,” he added, linking to a Democracy Now report on H.R. 9495, “a bill that would allow Trump and future presidents to effectively shut down nonprofits by labeling them a ‘terrorist-supporting organization,’” the site reports.

As some social media users accused him of being alarmist about the potential for U.S. bans, McKay doubled down, “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,” he wrote. “There’s also this thing where people take a passing comment and turn it into an absolute, wide reaching pronouncement.”

Though the Broadway play and the book are older than the current age of polarization, McKay wrote, “part of the timing is a coincidence—but still,” he added. “I think you’ll be shocked.”

Just because he hailed Wicked as “one of the most radical” major Hollywood films, McKay insisted, “I’m not reviewing the movie.” Whether or not he “liked” the film “that much,” is missing the point, he explained. “There’s a whole crowd that really has zero idea what’s going on big picture.”