The merry ol’ land of Oz spent this Christmas thirsting over Prince Fiyero after an infamously raunchy deleted scene from Wicked featuring Jonathan Bailey and Ethan Slater was leaked online.

The piping hot scene, which sees the actors go shirtless, was finally confirmed to be true after over a year of rumours.

Shared by Entertainment Tonight on Friday (26 December), the cut clip sees a sweaty Bailey, in his role as the Chieftain of the Arjikis, rip off his shirt after chopping wood.

Feeling challenged by Fiyero’s strapping physique, Boq, played by Slater, tears his own shirt off, revealing the kind of abs that could make an Emerald City guard die of thirst.

The clip’s existence was first raised by Saturday Night Live comedian Bowen Yang, who played Pfannee in the 2024 movie.

Speaking on Trisha Paytas’ podcast last year, Yang said the clip was meant to take place after the song Popular as a way to show the audience that Fiyero and Boq, as well as characters Glinda (Cynthia Erivo), Elphaba (Ariana Grande), and Nessa (Marissa Bode) are “all friends.”

However, Yang said it was likely cut for time, but admitted it might have also had something to do with Slater’s physique.

“Look, he’s jacked under that shirt,” Yang said at the time. “There were paparazzi shots of this because they had to shoot in, like, a park in London of them hanging out, where it’s Boq and Fiyero, Jonathan Bailey and Ethan Slater, ripping their shirts off.

“You were supposed to see Jonathan Bailey in his full shirtless glory, like flexing … but then it’s like, ‘Wait, Ethan’s got a great body’. I might get in trouble for saying that, but the movie’s out, it’s fine.”

As if Bailey’s abs weren’t enough reason to swoon over him, the 37-year-old British actor has used them to raise money for his very own LGBTQ+ charity.

In 2024, the Wicked star partnered with clothes brand Loewe to sell a white t-shirt bearing the slogan “Drink your Milk” inspired by Ron Nyaswaner’s Fellow Travellers mini-series, which Bailey won an Emmy Award nod.

To help promote the shirt, the actor starred in a raunchy video depicting him drinking a glass of milk before staring at the camera, wiping his lips, and saying: “Drink your milk.”