Jon M. Chu did not simply direct “ Wicked: For Good .” He governed a small nation.

For five years, he lived inside L. Frank Baum’s universe — shaping two films, welcoming three new children, and guiding an army of actors and craftspeople through one of the decade’s most scrutinized adaptations. Yet when Chu speaks now, he avoids talk of scale, spectacle or box office. Instead, he returns to responsibility, trust and the emotional architecture required to shepherd a story as fiercely protected and beloved as “Wicked.”

“When you live with something for five-plus years, and you dream about it and wake up with nightmares right in front of you, it sticks with you,” Chu says during the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast . “I have not processed it yet.”

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