After six Academy Award nominations–including five for Christopher Nolan-directed movies (The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Dunkirk and Tenet)–the seventh nod, for director Jon M. Chu’s Wicked, proved to be the charm for production designer Nathan Crowley, resulting earlier this year in his first career Oscar win.
Now Crowley finds himself squarely in the awards season conversation once again–this time for Wicked: For Good, continuing not only his fruitful collaboration with Chu, but also the story of Elphaba (portrayed by Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande) whose friendship is put to the test as they deal with the consequences of their actions.
Entering the world of Wicked has been a blessing for Crowley who described getting inside Oz as a dream come true. “I spent my whole childhood with The Wizard of Oz,” Crowley shared, adding that he feels a deep debt of gratitude to director Chu who gave him the opportunity to take on the Wicked films. The director and production designer had never worked together before. Crowley noted that he was direct with Chu from the start, acknowledging that “I don’t come from theater or musicals.” What Chu liked about the production designer’s experience, though, was its roots in cinema. “I know how to make big cinema and this is cinema on a grand scale,” affirmed Crowley, noting that his plunge into the musical realm was helped immeasurably by a couple of relatively recent turns in the song-and-dance discipline–The Greatest Showman, directed by Michael Gracey, and Wonka, helmed by Paul King. Prior to that, Crowley’s musical endeavors dated back some 30 years when he was a jr. set designer on Hook.
The Greatest Showman and Wonka brought Crowley into the narrative rhythm of musicals, made him more attuned to the art of choreography. And the generosity of his collaborators on the Wicked films made for a smoother entry into this magical world. For one, Crowley described Chu as “such a welcoming person,” one who “engages with you” and is open about what he wants. In planning for and discussing the story, Chu conveyed how he wanted it to feel emotionally, doing justice to “this great friendship” between Elphaba and Glinda and the extraordinary journey they take through the land of Oz. Chu’s willingness to spend considerable time with Crowley, to talk things through, to find images together, reminded the production designer of his two decades with director Nolan who too is direct, expressive and giving of his time. Chu would “push me in this fantasy area, this musical area. His attitude was let’s try to push as deeply as we can into the production design and find the right answers–not to be satisfied with an okay answer,” said Crowley. Narrative, music and choreography were all brought into focus and meshed, helping to shape and evolve the production design.
Producer Marc Platt was another key collaborator, particularly as an expert with time-honored wisdom in “all things Wicked,” from the original novel to the Broadway production through to the new iterations being created. “My early childhood was The Wizard of Oz,” related Crowley who shared that Wicked “didn’t belong to me as a child.” Platt, though, made up for that, informing Crowley’s work with “every single backstory of every single character” in Wicked. “We built a big room of imagery in story order” to spark discussion about the worlds that needed to be created for the Wicked films, recalled Crowley, with Platt providing invaluable feedback on what did or didn’t belong in those visuals based on his historic, encyclopedic-like knowledge of the Wicked universe. The collaboration with Platt too reminded Crowley in many respects of the deep creative bond he’s enjoyed with Nolan over the years.
Handmade feel
Crowley built a rapport with Chu, noting the he felt simpatico with the director across varied fronts–a key one being their desire to create the ambitious Wicked scale of fantasy as much in-camera and with as many practical sets as possible. Crowley found himself continually looking to balance practical sets and CG, leading decidedly toward the former whenever he could.
That was part of what Crowley said was Chu’s stated goal of making Wicked and Wicked: For Good feel “handmade,” the underpinning of the story being rooted in human DNA. The priority was the humanity of the narrative. And among Crowley’s biggest takeaways from his Wicked experience was that this human, handmade feel could be preserved even in the creation of the most fantastical environments, with visual effects work selectively integrated into the process.
Among the prime examples of this was the creation of Elphaba’s lair. This hiding place for the Wicked Witch was ensconced in the forest. Crowley and his team literally wove a nest of wood, greens and shrubs to create a fortress to behold. There was a sculptural dynamic in the creation of the environment. Like an actual sculpture, the maker doesn’t know exactly how it will come out until the creation process leads you to find the form. With scaffolding and steel construction as a foundation, this literally organic set was an amalgam of beautiful shapes. Windows were woven into an overall set that took some six weeks to assemble–with a mindful eye on story and practicality.
Relative to the practicality, Crowley worked closely with cinematographer Alice Brooks, ASC so that she could light the set properly. Towards that end, giant silicone leaves were devised. Adorned with hand-painted leaf veins, these transparent leaves were placed on the roof of the Wicked Witch’s sanctuary, enabling Brooks to cast light into the sculpted setting. Crowley observed that he and his colleagues didn’t know where they would end up as they tried to solve the lighting quandary in concert with Brooks. To find that out, they all had to journey there together. “That’s why I love practical filmmaking,” said Crowley, noting that it takes everyone to identify and address issues, problem solve, and fully serve the story and its characters.
Awards pedigree
In addition to Wicked and the five Christopher Nolan films, rounding out Crowley’s seven career Oscar nominations is director Damien Chazelle’s First Man back in 2019. Crowley additionally has six BAFTA Award nominations, winning for Wicked earlier this year. (The other five BAFTA nods were for Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Dunkirk and First Man.)
Crowley earned an Emmy nomination in 2017 for “The Original” episode of Westworld. And he has a dozen career nominations from the Art Directors Guild (ADG) Excellence in Production Design Awards competition, winning four times–for Westworld and three features, namely The Dark Knight, Tenet and Wicked.
This is the fifth installment of SHOOT’s 16-part The Road To Oscar Series of feature stories. Shining a light on such disciplines as directing, cinematography, producing, editing, production design, visual effects and animation, this series will appear weekly all the way through to the Academy Awards gala ceremony. Nominations for the 98th Oscars will be announced on Thursday, January 22, 2026. The 98th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Hollywood, Calif., televised live on ABC and streamed on Hulu.
