Franchise / Land of Oz

We're not in Kansas anymore.
(Top L to R): The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1986), The Witches of Oz (2011), Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz (2011)
(Middle L to R): Wicked (2003), The Wizard of Oz (1939) Once Upon a Time (2011)
(Bottom L to R): Return to Oz (1985), Tin Man (2007), The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005)

The Land of Oz is a fantasy setting created by L. Frank Baum in his novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The book has had 39 official sequels (among many unauthorised ones and spinoffs) with the originals generally being called "The Famous Forty", 14 of them being written by Baum.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was adapted for the stage almost immediately, and was a massive success, inspiring Baum to begin writing the sequel novels. It has since been adapted numerous times, in nearly every conceivable medium, including a 1939 film musical that for many people is more familiar than the original novel; most film adaptations these days will at least allude to the 1939 film in some way, although copyright makes this tricky. The number of non-literary adaptations decrease rapidly the further into the sequels you look, with almost none after the third novel, although elements from later novels do frequently appear in adaptations of the earlier novels.

Out of the “Famous Forty”, 26 of the books are public domain, allowing considerable scope for unlicensed spin-offs, sequels and re-imaginings; thus making the trope Dystopian Oz possible, which many of the below works employ. Given the public domain status of most of the original books by now, fan fiction of the series can be legally published and profited from. Series that take on their own unique interpretations of Oz, such as The Wicked Years and Dorothy Must Die, have found great success with major publishers. Pseudo-Canonical Fic that tries to stick to the original canon of the Famous Forty Oz books are more niche, and many of these stories have been published by The Royal Publisher of Oz, the Hungry Tiger Press, Books of Wonder, the official fan magazine Oziana, and others over the years. The Royal Publisher of Oz is nowadays the main publisher of these canon-friendly Oz stories (other than those who self-publish), and maintains an extended canon for modern stories that are close enough in tone to the original books.

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Oz-related works with their own pages on this wiki include:

Anime & Manga

• The Wizard of Oz (Oz no Mahōtsukai, 1982) — A feature film-length adaptation of the first novel. Produced by Toho with animation by Topcraft, it was made for a U.S. audience (in English first) and was not released in Japan until 1986. The English Version stars Aileen Quinn as Dorothy and Lorne Greene as the Wizard.
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz no Mahōtsukai, 1986) — Adapted the first three and the sixth novel; English-language dubbed version by Cinar aired on HBO.
• The Wonderful Galaxy of Oz (Space Oz no Bōken, 1992) — The first novel but IN SPACE!.

Comic Books

• Oz (Caliber) (Caliber, 1994-1996; Arrow, 1997-2000) — Three 1990s era twenty-somethings are swept away from our Earth to the land of Oz via tornado. There they discover that sinister forces have been at work, and the evil Nome King now rules the land with an iron fist, backed up by his army of rock-dwelling minions. Having become unwilling freedom fighters in a world not their own, Earthlings Peter, Kevin, Mary, and Kevin’s dog Max soon play a central role in ridding the once-beautiful Oz of the Nome King’s dark influence.
• Fables (Vertigo, 2002-2015) — A Massive Multiplayer Crossover of fairy tales and children's fantasy; Ozma and the Nome King are featured prominently.
• Oz (Marvel, 2009-2013) — Marvel Comics' comic adaptations of the first six books by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young.
• Grimm Fairy Tales (Zenescope, 2005-) — A Darker and Edgier take on various fairy tales, in which Oz is one of the "Realms of Power" and gets several spin-offs dedicated to it.

Films — Animation

• Journey Back to Oz (1974) — A sequel to the 1939 movie, using voice actors connected with the movie. (Margaret Hamilton voiced Aunt Em, for example.) Produced by Filmation
• Dorothy Meets Ozma of Oz (1987) — A half-hour direct-to-video film based on the third novel.
• Lion of Oz (2000) — A prequel to the original book starring the Cowardly Lion.
• Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz (2011) — This Direct to Video animated feature is a Twice-Told Tale version of the 1939 film that adds the battling cat and mouse to the story. (The same company holds the rights to both the cartoon characters and the movie.)
  • Tom and Jerry: Back to Oz (2016) — A sequel which also takes inspiration from some of the other Oz books.
• Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2014) — A fully computer-animated feature film, a sequel to both the 1939 film and based on a book written by L. Frank Baum's great-grandson.
• The Steam Engines of Oz (2018) — Sequel set a century after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz where technology has advanced to Steampunk levels. Based on the comic book series of the same name.

Films — Live-Action

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910) — The oldest surviving film adaptation of the franchise.
• The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914) — A film adaptation of the seventh novel.
• The Wizard Of Oz (1925) — Larry Semon's comedic take, which inspired the All Just a Dream and And You Were There aspects the 1939 movie would borrow
• The Wizard of Oz (1939) — The iconic MGM musical film that adapted the first novel.
• The Wiz (1978) — All-African-American musical retelling of the first novel loosely based on the Broadway musical of the same name.
• Return to Oz (1985) — Not exactly a sequel to the 1939 film; drew plot elements and characters from the first two sequel novels.
• Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) — A prequel about how the the Wizard came to Oz.

Literature

• Land of Oz (the 40 official novels, 1900-1963)
  • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
  • The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904)
  • Ozma of Oz (1907)
  • Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908)
  • The Road to Oz (1909)
  • The Emerald City of Oz (1910)
  • The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913)
  • Tik-Tok of Oz (1914)
  • The Scarecrow of Oz (1915)
  • Rinkitink in Oz (1916)
  • The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)
  • The Tin Woodman of Oz (1918)
  • The Magic of Oz (1919)
  • Glinda of Oz (1920)
  • The Lost King of Oz (1925)
  • Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz (1929)
  • Ojo in Oz (1933)
  • Handy Mandy in Oz (1937)
• Tales of the Magic Land (1939-1975) — A (very free) Russian translation of the first book made by Alexander Melentyevich Volkov that spun off into its own book series.
• The Mysterious Chronicles Of Oz (1985) by James E. Nitch (under the Pen Name "Onyx Madden") — A midquel between the second and third books which explains how Ozma got used to her new role as ruler.
• Was by Geoff Ryman (1992) — A Darker and Edgier novel where Dorothy creates a fantasy world called "Oz" to escape the pain of her parent's death and her boring life with her distant (and sometimes abusive) aunt and uncle.
• The Wicked Years by Gregory Maguire — Dark adult-aimed reimaginings that blend various versions of the series together.
  • Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995).
  • Son of a Witch (2005).
  • A Lion Among Men (2008).
  • Out of Oz (2011).
• The Seven Blue Mountains of Oz by Dorothy Grandy — A trilogy featuring a new cast as well as various references to the official books.
  • The Disenchanted Princess of Oz (1995)
  • Tippetarius in Oz (2000)
  • Zim Greenleaf of Oz (2005)
• Ozma Sees Herself by Edward Einhorn (1997) — A short story set between The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz in which Ozma struggles to adapt to her new role as ruler of Oz.
• Paradox in Oz by Edward Einhorn (2000) — A modern Oz novel in the style of the classic books, in which the anti-aging spell that keeps Oz's populace young wears out, and Princess Ozma needs to travel through time to get the spell reinstated.
• In Search of Dorothy by David Anthony (2005-2007) — A duology of Oz books intended as a trilogy, following from the MGM movie 20 years later where the Witch has returned to wreak havoc on Oz.
• Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige (2014) — The first book of a series re-imagining Dorothy as having been corrupted by her position in the Baum books and becoming an evil dictator. The protagonist is a modern-day Kansas Teen, Amy Gunn.
• The Haunted Castle of Oz by Marcus Mebes (2019) — A modern Oz book following the continuity of the original books, in which Ozma finds that her castle is haunted and enlists Dorothy and her friends to get to the bottom of the mystery.
• The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids by Lupan Evezan & Aristide Twain (2020) — An independent science-fantasy series about The Multiverse, which uses what is explicitly the original books' Land of Oz as a recurring setting (starting with a story appropriately entitled The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids in Oz).
• Wretched (2022) (2022) — a dark contemporary romance novel written by Emily McIntire based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Live-Action TV

• Lost in Oz (2002) — A young woman from present-day America travels to Oz and battles the returned Wicked Witch of the West. A pilot episode that didn't go to series.
• The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) — A Made-for-TV Movie that cast Ashanti as a Present Day Dorothy and various Muppets as her travelling companions and adversaries. Miss Piggy, for instance, plays all four witches.
• Tin Man (2007) — Syfy's six hour, three-part miniseries, a re-imagining and continuation of the classic story set years after the events of the original.
• The Witches of Oz (2011) — Miniseries directed by Leigh Scott of The Asylum fame, in which a modern-day Dorothy Gale discovers that her best-selling novels are in fact inspired by her own supressed memories of her adventures in Oz.
• Emerald City (2017) — A very loose Darker and Edgier & Hotter and Sexier adaptation: the scarecrow is a shirtless amnesiac, the Witch of the West runs a brothel, the wizard is a tyrant who has banned the practice of magic, and Dorothy has a gun.

Manhwa

• Dorothy of Oz (2006) — A Korean fantasy comic loosely based on the story.

Music

• Straight Outta Oz (2016) — A Concept Album by Todrick Hall that serves as a semi-autobiographical account of Todrick's life using an Oz motif.

Pinballs

• The Wizard of Oz (2013)

Podcasts

• Film Reroll: The Wizard of Oz (2016) — Begins as a retelling of the 1939 film, then goes off in a direction all its own. Highlights include Dorothy becoming a Dragon Rider while her friends learn to use magic (with mixed results) after looting the Wicked Witch of the West's castle. The campaign also features appearances by Mombi and Tip/Ozma.
• The Chronicles Of Oz (2017-) — An ongoing Audio Play adaptation of the original books, which take a somewhat Darker and Edgier spin (though much truer to the spirit and tone of the original books than some of the other adaptations here), featuring a teenaged Dorothy and an Oz on the brink of civil war.Also, all the inhabitants of Oz speak with Australian accents.
• Hit The Bricks (2020-) — a Musical Audio Play about two modern-day teenagers, cousins Jessi Hugson and Wallace Williams, who find themselves in Oz about a hundred years after the events of L. Frank Baum's books.

Theatre

• The Wizard of Oz (1902) — The first adaptation, it's loosely related to the original book and was written by Baum himself.
• The Wiz (1975) — A musical retelling of the first book, with African-American songwriters and influence.
• Wicked (2003) — Adapted from a book of the same name that revisited the events before and during The Wizard of Oz from the Wicked Witch of the West's perspective.
• The Wizard of Oz (2011) — Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on the 1939 film.
• The Kansas Collection (2016-2019) — A dark immersive theatre show based on the books.

Video Games

• The Wizard of Oz (1993) — A 2-D Platformer for the Super Nintendo. Based on the 1939 film.
• The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road (RIZ-ZOAWD, 2009) — A Nintendo DS RPG which is highly stylized and re-imagined.
• Emerald City Confidential (2009) — A point and click game featuring Oz characters in 1940s film noir Emerald City.
• Code Name: S.T.E.A.M (2015) — Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin-Man and Lion, among other literary characters, are members of a steampunk hero team led by Abraham Lincoln.
• LEGO Dimensions (2015) — The game features characters and a stage based on the 1939 film.
• Currently unnamed game (TBD) — A Darker and Edgier adaptation of the original book; teased at in The Stinger of and sequel to Lies of P.

Web Comics

• The Black Brick Road of O.Z. (2012-2016) — A surreal reimagining of the original Oz books.
• Cheshire Crossing (2006-2008, 2017-2019) — A crossover fantasy webcomic starring Dorothy Gale, Alice Liddell, and Wendy Darling.
• Namesake (2010-) — A comic that crosses over many public domain fantasy stories, and features Oz prominently in the first arc when main character Emma gets teleported there. The comic considers the first six books canon before branching off on its own.
• Skin Horse (2007-2022) — by Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells. While this isn't set in the Land of Oz universe, most of the characters are expies of Oz characters.
• Yellow Brick Ramble (2023-) — A reimagining of The Marvelous Land of Oz.

Web Videos

• No Place Like Home (2007) — A very loose adaptation directed and produced by Ryan Murphy.

Western Animation

• The Wizard of Oz (1933) — A one-shot animated short produced by Ted Eshbaugh. This short was originally going to be the first in a series of shorts based on the first novel. However, due to copyright issues with the Technicolor process at the time, the project was shelved. This short is notable for being the first animated Oz film.
• Tales of the Wizard of Oz (1961) — A series of short cartoons by Crawley Films (later Rankin/Bass Productions), featuring Dorothy, the Wizard, the Witch, Socrates Scarecrow, Rusty Tinman, and Dandy Lion.
• The Wizard of Oz (1990) — A sequel to the 1939 movie. Produced by DiC Entertainment and Turner Entertainment.
• Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz (2017) — A Flash Animated series produced by Warner Bros. Animation and airing on Boomerang's On-Demand service. The show follows the adventures of Dorothy and her friends in OZ. This show combines elements from the books and the 1939 movie.
• Lost in Oz (2017) — Computer-animated series, from a pilot episode originally released in 2015, with Dorothy and Toto in a magitek Emerald City where Dorothy's best friend is a witch named West.

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Other Oz-related works include:

Anime & Manga

• Toto! The Wonderful Adventure (Weekly Shōnen Magazine 2003-2005) — Also has elements from Alice in Wonderland.
• Captive Hearts Of Oz (2017) — A reimagining of Baum’s original Oz stories in a modern, shoujo style. Four Complete Volumes.

Comic Books

• The Wizard of OZ (Dell Junior Illustrated, 1956)
• The Wizard of OZ (Classics Illustrated Junior, 1957)
• MGM's Marvelous Wizard of Oz (Marvel/DC, 1975) — An adaptation of the 1939 film created as a collaboration between Marvel Comics and DC Comics.
• Marvel Treasury of Oz (Marvel, 1975) — Intended to adapt the sequel novels in the same format with the same creative team; only managed the first sequel before being discontinued.
• Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! In The Oz-Wonderland War Trilogy (DC, 1986)
• Adventures in Oz (First Comics, Dark Horse, IDW 1986-1992) — Five graphic novels by Eric Shanower.
• Oz Squad (Brave New Words, 1991-1996) — Oz characters as '90s Anti-Hero super team, led by an adult Dorothy.
• The Wizard of Oz: The Graphic Novel (Puffin Books, 2005)— A Modernized adaptation by Michael Cavallaro.
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Le Magicien D' Oz, Delcourt, 2005) — A beautifully illustrated adaptation of the first novel by David Chauvel and Enrique Fernandez. English Version was published by Image Comics.
• The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles (BUYMETOYS.com, 2005-2008) — crossover miniseries with Alice in Wonderland, starring college-aged Dorothy and Alice in modern times, returning to the wondrous lands of their childhoods. Also had two spin-off miniseries; the prologue Oz/Wonderland Chronicles: Prelude to Evil , and Jack & Cat, which starred Jack Pumpkinhead and the Cheshire Cat.
• Oz: the Manga (Antarctic, 2006) — Adapted the first novel.
• The Wizard of OZ (Stone Arch Books, 2009) — An Animesque adaptation by Martin Powell and Jorge Break
• The Royal Historian of Oz (SLG Publishing, 2011) — an original story by Tommy Kovac and Andy Hirsch. A struggling author and fan of the Oz books discovers that Oz and all of Baum's stories were real. On the other hand, his teenage son is not a fan of Oz.
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Sterling Children's Books, 2012) — Adaptation of the first novel by Ben Caldwell.
• The Legend of Oz: Wicked West (Big Dog Ink, 2011-2016) — Re-imagines the setting as a Western.
  • Legends of Oz: The Scarecrow (2013)
  • Legends of Oz: Tik-Tok and the Kalidah (2016)
• No Place Like Home (Image Comics, 2012) — A horror series
• Dorothy of Oz Prequel (IDW Publishing, 2012) — Based on Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
• The Steam Engines of Oz (Arcana Studio, 2013) — Sequel set a century after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz where technology has advanced to Steampunk levels. Adapted as an animated film in 2018.
  • The Steam Engines of Oz: The Geared Leviathan — (Arcana Studio, 2013-2014)
• Dorothy's Dead (Andrew Skutnik, 2017-2018) — Post Apocalyptic setting.

Comic Strip

• Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz (1904-1905) — A newspaper comic strip written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by Walt McDougall about the misadventures of the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Woggle-Bug, Jack Pumpkinhead, and the Sawhorse, as the Gump flies them to various cities in the United States.
  • The Woggle-Bug Book (1905)

Literature

• The Laughing Dragon of Oz by Frank Joslyn Baum (1934) — Written by L. Frank Baum's son as part of an unsuccessful ploy to gain intellectual property rights over the series.
• Yankee in Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson (1972)
• The Enchanted Island of Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson (1976)
• The Forbidden Fountain of Oz by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw (1980)
• A Barnstormer in Oz by Philip José Farmer (1982)
• Mister Tinker in Oz by James Howe (1985)
• Return to Oz by Joan D. Vinge (1985) — Novelization of the film.
• The Ozmapolitan of Oz by Dick Martin (1986)
• Keepsake Adventures of Oz series by Roger Stanton Baum, the great-grandson of L. Frank Baum
  • Dorothy of Oz (1989)
  • The Rewolf of Oz (1990)
  • Lion of Oz and the Badge of Courage (1995)
  • The Green Star of Oz (2000)
  • Toto in Candy Land (2000)
  • The Wizard of Oz and the Magic Merry-Go-Round (2002)
  • Toto of Oz and the Surprise Party (2004)
  • The Oz Odyssey (2006)
  • Oz Odyssey II (2011)
• The SillyOZbuls of Oz by Roger Stanton Baum (1991)
  • The SillyOZbul of Oz and Toto by Roger Stanton Baum (1992)
  • The SillyOZbul of Oz and the Magic Merry-Go-Round by Roger Stanton Baum (1992)
• The Wicked Witch of Oz by Rachel Cosgrove (1993)
• The Runaway in Oz by John R. Neill (1995)
• The Unknown Witches of Oz by Dave Hardenbrook (2000)
• The Rundelstone of Oz by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (2001)
• The Emerald Wand of Oz by Sherwood Smith (2005)
• The Living House of Oz by Edward Einhorn (2005)
• Trouble Under Oz by Sherwood Smith (2006)
• Oz Squad: March of the Tin Soldiers by Steve Ahlquist (2011) — Novel based on the Oz Squad comic book series.
• Silver Tower of Oz by Margaret Baum (2011)
• Shadow of Oz by Nick Damon — A dark sequel to the first book where a now adult Dorothy ends back in Oz.
  • Shadow of Oz (2012)
  • Tin Man of Oz (2013)
  • The Other Wizard of Oz (2016)
• Oz Reimagined, edited by John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen (2013) — Featuring fifteen original short stories by prominent contemporary authors of science fiction, fantasy and horror.
• Polychrome by Ryk E. Spoor (2015)
• The Storymakers (2015) — A series of novels loosely based on fairy-tales. The first book, Spelled, stars the spoiled princess Dorthea as she goes to find the mysterious Wizard of Oz and undo a curse that will unleash a wicked witch to destroy the world.
• Toto: The Dog-Gone Amazing Story of the Wizard of Oz by Michael Morpurgo (2017) — A retelling of the first novel told from Toto's perspective.
• The Lost Tales of Oz, edited by Joe Bongiorno (2018) — A collection of various short stories, which hew to the original canon as much as possible.
• The New Oz Chronicles by David Keyes — A Darker and Edgier continuation of the original books, which pits the citizens of Oz against newer, more unknown threats.
  • A Nightmare in Oz (2020)
  • The Black Rainbow of Oz (2021)
  • Shadows Over Oz (TBA)

Live-Action TV

• The Dreamer of Oz (1990) — A Made-for-TV Biopic detailing the life of L. Frank Baum and how he came up with The Wizard of Oz. The film stars John Ritter as L. Frank Baum.

Tabletop Games

• Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road (2010)
• Oz: Dark and Terrible (2010)
• Heroes of Oz (2011)
• Winter Tales (2012) — A storytelling board game that draws characters from fairy tales and children's fantasy, with Dorothy, Tin Man, and Scarecrow among the player characters.
• Battle for Oz (2014) — A Darker and Edgier setting update for Savage Worlds
• The New Tales of Oz (2020)

Video Games

• The Wizard of Oz (1985) — A text adventure by Windham Classics (a division of Spinnaker Software) for various computers. Combined the plots of the original book and The Marvelous Land of Oz (and a Shout-Out to the third book in the series) into one narrative, leaving Dorothy to take over Tip's role as protagonist.

Web Comics

• The Carnevillans of Oz — An ongoing comic on DeviantArt, centering around a mysterious Circus of Fear arriving in Oz and trying to take over through Forced Transformation and Mind Control. The comic is very blatant about how it's based on Oz such as it's depicted in the books.
• Yellow Brick Road — An adaptation of the books by Stephan Krosecz.

Western Animation

• There was a short subject adaptation called The Magic of Oz. Information regarding it is very scarce; the studio is not identified, the people listed in the opening credits have very scarce information on IMDB and the exact year of release is uncertain (the only approximation is of around the late 1950s/early 1960s). What is certain, however, is that it may be the worst adaptation of Oz ever. See for yourself.
• Return to Oz (1964) — An hour long special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions, and broadcast by NBC.
• The Wonderland of Oz (1966) — A test pilot used to demonstrate the Animascope process. ^note  a more advanced version of Rotoscoping.
• Off to See the Wizard (1967) — An animated anthology series produced by Chuck Jones, and broadcast by ABC.
• Oz: The Tin Woodman's Dream (1967) — A stop-motion short film directed by Harry Smith featuring the Tin Woodman having a strange, but fantastical dream.
• The Adventures of a Man in Search of a Heart (1974) — An animated PSA produced by the American Heart Association starring the Tinman teaching children about maintaining a healthy heart.
  • The Heart That Changed Color (1975) — A sequel that features the Tinman and the Scarecrow explaining the dangers of smoking.
  • It's a Heart (1980) — A second sequel that has the Tinman, Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion demonstrating the circulatory system and how it keeps the human body functioning.
• Thanksgiving in the Land of OZ (1980) — A half-hour special produced by Fred Wolf Films and broadcast by CBS. Also known as Dorothy in the Land of OZ.
• In the Magical Land of Oz (W krainie czarnoksiężnika Oza, 1983) — A stop-motion animated series from Poland. Based on the first two novels.
• The Wizard of OZ (1991) — A half-hour animated film produced by Golden Films.
• The Oz Kids (1996) — A Spin-Offspring animated series produced by Hyperion Pictures.
• Adventures in the Emerald City: Silver Shoes (1999) — Russian two-part animated television adaptation. It's mostly based on Baum but includes several elements from the "Magic Land" books. A two part sequel, Adventures in the Emerald City: Princess Ozma, adapted Baum’s Marvelous Land of Oz.
• Guardians of OZ (Guardianes de Oz, 2015) — A computer animated film produced by Jorge Gutiérrez.
• Dee and Friends in Oz (2024) — An upcoming CGI animated preschool series produced by 9 Story Media Group and set to premiere on Netflix.

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