Wickedis a prequel to the hugely popularWizard of Ozstory, and as such,many of the characters that appear in the stage production will be familiarto audiences from the first film. However, many ofWicked’s main charactersaren’t exactly who they seem to be at first, as their names and appearances change between the two stories. The prequel does a great job of keeping the audience guessing from start to finish, with many of the story’s biggest reveals helping to bridge the gap betweenWickedandThe Wizard of Oz.
Alongside these surprising twists,Wickedalso has several new characterswho don’t appear in the original story at all. This helps mask the twist reveals, keeping them limited to a select few individuals. Not everyWickedcharacter appears inTheWizard of Oz, but the audience isn’t truly sure which is which until the last moment. This givesWicked’s characters an air of mystery and intrigue that’s not always present in prequels, avoiding the common problem of existing character’s fates being known from the outset. One of these characters is Boq, who has one of the most fascinating journeys.
Elphaba Creates The Tin Man In Wicked
Boq Becomes The Tin Man At The End Of Wicked
One of the major plot points in the second half ofWickedis Elphaba’s creation of the Tin Man, who will later help Dorothy bring down the witch inThe Wizard of Oz. However, the figure who becomes the Tin Man is present from the very beginning of the story - his name is Boq, a nervous Munchkin who attends Shiz University with Elphaba and Glinda.Boq stumbles into an unrequited love triangle with Glinda and Elphaba’s sister Nessarose, which causes tension between the friends.
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When Nessarose discovers that Boq only showed interest in her in order to get closer to Glinda, she lashes out and casts a spell from Elphaba’s spell book that causes his heart to shrink and disappear.Elphaba manages to save Boq’s life, but it turns him into the Tin Man in the process. It’s expected that theWickedmovies will split the Broadway storyaround the point of the intermission, which comes long before Boq’s transformation - so it could be a while before this occurs on-screen.
Who Is Boq? Wicked’s Character Who Becomes The Tin Man
Before He’s The Tin Man, Boq Is A Friend Of Elphaba’s
Before he becomes the Tin Man,Boq is easily one ofWicked’smost likable and charming characters. His unrequited love for Glinda helps create sympathy for him from the beginning, and the way he’s treated by the other characters in Shiz University immediately sets him up as somebody to feel sorry for. However,Wickeddoes a great job of subverting these expectations later, displaying how Boq can use his low social status to his own benefit and bring certain others down with him.
Boq has some ofWicked’s most iconic quotesand features in many of the play’s most memorable moments, in addition to boasting a transformative - yet polarizing - journey. The Munchkin who’s first introduced at Shiz University is very different from the Tin Man who’s present at the end of the story, andhis development offers some fascinating insight into the story’s main themesand messages.
He’s empathetic, good-natured, and welcoming when he needs to be, but his story quickly takes a more complex turn that helps keepWicked’s narrative multi-faceted and engaging.
Boq’s relationships with the other characters, particularly Glinda and Nessarose, help giveWickedan extra dimension of drama beyond Elphaba’s conflict with the wizard. It’s easy to think of him as a side character, but without him,Wickedwould be a completely different adventure altogether. He’s empathetic, good-natured, and welcoming when he needs to be, but his story quickly takes a more complex turn that helps keepWicked’s narrative multi-faceted and engaging.
What Happens To Boq After Becoming The Tin Man
The Character Has A Fairly Tragic Fate
Boq’s journey throughoutWicked’s second act is a tragic one; when he wakes up as the Tin Man, he immediately blames Elphaba for his condition and joins the hunt against the Wicked Witch of the West. Nessarose fans this flame, blaming her own sister for the curse that she personally inflicted upon Boq. He unknowingly turns against the woman who saved his life, all because of his own blind admiration for Glinda and Nessarose. AsWicked’s timeline gets closer toThe Wizard of Oz,Boq becomes more disillusioned with Elphabaand blames her entirely for his condition.
This disillusionment leads perfectly into theWizard of Oz, where audiences already know the Tin Man as one of the key figures in Dorothy’s quest against the Wicked Witch. The play does this with several characters, setting them up as new figures and then revealing their “new” identities in the final act to lead neatly into theWizard of Oz- but Boq is perhaps the strongest example of this.His arc is an unfortunate but powerful one, touching on the story’s key themes of revenge, prejudice, and social exclusion.
How Wicked’s Tin Man Origin Changes Wizard Of Oz
Wicked Changes The Audience’s Perception Of The Tin Man
With prequels, there’s always the danger that whatever new story is told could somehow negatively impact the original text. This is something that writer Gregory Maguire was surely aware of when penning his story, and something that Winnie Holzman took into account when adapting it for the stage. However, both writers do an excellent job of ensuring thatWickedenhancesThe Wizard of Ozrather than damages it- the story has such a clear purpose with every single character, taking them on a journey that allows the audience to then viewThe Wizard of Ozthrough a new lens.
Boq is the perfect example of this: by following his unrequited love for Glinda, and allowing that to explain why he was so quick to turn against Elphaba, the audience gains a new understanding of the Tin Man. He’s a character who’s been tricked into hating the one person who saved his life, which makes his story even more tragic and unfortunate than it was at first. Neither Maguire nor Holzman actually changed anything about the Tin Man, but through their exploration of Boq’s earlier years inWicked, they made his actions inThe Wizard of Ozmake more sense.
Wicked
Cast
Wicked adapts the Broadway musical into a two-part film, following the unlikely friendship between Elphaba, born with green skin, and Glinda, a popular aristocrat, in the Land of Oz. As they navigate their contrasting paths, they evolve into Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.
