(Credits: Sundance Institute)

Oh, Netflix really said, “Let them eat cake,” this April, didn’t they? Because right when the entire world is losing its mind over the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic Michael, Netflix secretly added The Wiz to its catalogue on April 1st, and while it might be confused for an April Fool’s prank, that wasn’t a joke. That is Netflix doing the absolute most in the best way, and we are here for every second of it.

Before we go ahead, a little context for those who missed the news. Director Antoine Fuqua is bringing a biopic titled Michael starring MJ’s actual nephew, Jaafar Jackson, and it is hitting theatres on April 24th.

Now, for anyone who needs a little context before we get into the dramatics, The Wiz is a 1978 musical fantasy film produced by Motown Productions and Universal Pictures, adapted from the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name, which itself is a reimagining of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. But The Wiz is told entirely through the lens of the African American experience in 1970s New York.

Here, Dorothy is no longer a Kansas farm girl but a 24-year-old kindergarten teacher from Harlem, played by Diana Ross, who insisted so aggressively on playing the role that the original director, John Badham, walked off the project in protest. He thought she was too old, when in fact, she was 33. Badham left. Sidney Lumet, fresh off Dog Day Afternoon and Network, took his seat. And the show went on.

But let us talk about who we are actually here for. Michael Jackson, at 19 years old, made his only feature film debut in The Wiz as the Scarecrow. Surprisingly, the role was not even originally his. Jimmie Walker of Good Times was the first choice until the production realised they needed someone who could sing, dance and act, and a very young Michael Jackson appeared like a pro and got into those enormous clown shoes and completely ran away with the film.

He literally ran away with it, and by that we mean that his makeup was so elaborate and so time-consuming that he would go home some nights with the full Scarecrow face still on rather than sit through the four-hour removal process all over again the next morning. The man was more than dedicated to the character.

And the critics? They panned almost everything about The Wiz. You see, the budget of the film was $24 million, which made it the second most expensive film of 1978 behind only Superman, and it made back barely $12 million at the box office. Multiple reviewers called it a disaster. Every single one of them exempted Michael Jackson’s Scarecrow from the criticism.

Proving them all wrong, he won the Outstanding Actor award at the 1979 NAACP Image Awards for the role, and in 1980, he said, “My time working on The Wiz was my greatest experience so far… I’ll never forget that.” A boy who was not even supposed to have the part, who the director initially didn’t want, walked away as the undisputed highlight of the film.

What makes this addition to Netflix so delicious is its timing. The Wiz holds utter importance in Michael Jackson’s story. The film was shot in Queens over six months in 1977, and it was during those months in New York that a teenage Michael fell genuinely in love with the city and began forming the artistic vision that made him one of the most famous personalities in the world to date.

The biopic Michael is coming. But before you watch where the King of Pop ended up, go watch where he began. It is all on Netflix right now.