Massive, massive Spoilers for act 2 of the Broadway musical “Wicked” – which is being adapted to “Wicked: For Good” – await us! Stop reading if you wish Avoid spoilers!
In the film “The Magician of Oz” of 1939, Dorothy Gale de Judy Garland is flanked by three companions while she travels the road to yellow bricks to meet the magician of Oz (four, if we count his faithful Puppy Toto, who has traveled with her from Kansas in Oz). These friends and protectors are known as the Lion Lion (Bert Lahr), Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) and Iron Man (Jack Haley), and while Dorothy wants to ask the sorcerer to send her home, the Lion, scarecrow and Tin Man has his own agendas. The lion wants to ask him for courage, the scarecrow would really like a brain, and as for the iron man, he simply wants a working heart.
You probably know these characters because, well, “the magician of Oz” is one of the most famous films of all time … But how is Tin Man taken into account in “Wicked”, the film Epic of Jon M. Chu. A partial adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name? (While “The Magician of Oz” obviously takes into account the story of “Wicked”, I must clarify that the musical is really based on the novel by Gregory Maguire of 1995 “Wicked: the life and the time of the wicked witch of the West”, which is darker than the musical but he still serves him of source.) A character that we have already met in “Wicked: Part One” will in fact become Tin Man, and this is a tragic story – then, here is what to monitor when the second film “Wicked”, ” Wicked: For Good “, will be released later this year.
What does BOQ do in Wicked: first part?
When we meet Boq in “Wicked: Part One”, we immediately realize that he is from Munchkinland – largely because he must stand on a pile of books at the University of Shiz to meet in the eyes His romantic rival, Prince Fiyreo Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey). And he is played by Ethan Slater, an actor known for his roles in Broadway shows like “The Spongebob Musical” and “Spamalot”. (These days, Slater is Also Known for her real relationship with Ariana Grande-Butera, who plays Galinda Upland in “Wicked” and has received an Oscar nomination for her supporting role.) Boq is soft, apparently shy and wears a fairly obvious torch for Galinda, who pushes him back To the point that she continues to forget her name (she calls her “bick”, like, a whole bunch of times). When Galinda understands this, she cleverly says to Boq that he should ask to go out with Nessarose Thropp (Marissa Bode), the younger sister of the unpopular student of Shiz, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo, who Also obtained an Oscar in the main category), leaving Galinda free to continue romanceing Fiyero.
Boq seems to understand, at a certain level, that Galinda provides Nessarosis as a distraction, but that does not mean that he is cruel to Nessarose; In fact, he is his appointment when a whole group of Shiz students sneak in dancing at the Stardust Ballroom, and he makes sure that she has a good time. Unfortunately, Boq’s bond with Nessarose is ultimately his fall – and it helps to explain how he becomes the Tin Man.
Boq’s twisted love story will be a major element of Wicked’s intrigue: for good
Nessarose really likes Boq, but the way she shows it in the second act of the musical “Wicked” is, frankly, not great. At the end of the first act of the musical (which we have already seen on the screen in “Wicked: Part One”), Elphaba escapes the city of emerald under constraint just after discovering that the dean of The witchcraft of the University of Shiz, Mrs. Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) and the Magician of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) are both wick And evil fraud. While Elphaba escapes, she sings Act 1 breathtaking “Defying Gravity”, reluctantly leaving her best friend – who is now simply called “Glinda” – behind her as she seeks to leave Oz And to avoid persecution, and at the end of the film. , we see Madame Mortible organizing a complete public relations campaign declaring that Elphaba is the enemy of all that is good in Oz. While Nessarosis, she and Elphaba’s father, Governor Thropp (Andy Nyman) listen to his announcement, Governor Thropp collapses and, in act 2 of musical, we learn that he is dead (probably in shock).
When Nessarose takes control of Munchkinland as governor (in place of her father), she becomes a tyrannical leader – which is bad news for Boq, who finds herself trapped in the country and confronted with a civil rights crisis , quite simply because Nessarose wants to hang on to the country. The man she loves so much. When Elphaba arrives to try to reason with his sister, things go from bad to worse, especially with regard to Boq.
A spell that went wrong finally transforms Boq into a tin man
When she discovers that her sister became a cruel leader of Munchkinland (and her love for Boq became toxic), Elphaba tries to do something nice for her sister, but that turns completely against him. We see, in “Wicked: Part One”, that Melena (Courtney Mae -Briggs), Elphaba and Nessarose’s mother, left behind a pair of silver shoes, and Elphaba enchants them – making them ruby red in the process – To help Nessarose walk without the help of your wheelchair. It is extremely important to note here that, on stage, Nessarose is generally played by a valid actor, but Marissa Bode is the first user of wheelchair to play this role. In September 2024, Bode told Variety That this particular moment will be different in the second film “Wicked”, declaring: “Giving an authentic cast and showing an authentic disabled person is very important, but it is also very important how We are shown. I am very happy with the changes that have been made, that’s for sure. “
No one apart from Bode and Jon M. Chu really knows how it will change in “Wicked: for good”, but the point in the musical is that Boq, seeing Nessarose walking, suddenly decides that she no longer “need “From him and try to leave. be with Glinda. Angry, Nessarose throws a spell supposed to keep Boq with her by focusing on her heart, but all that she ends up doing is shrinking her heart because he belongs to Glinda. In order to save his life, Elphaba launches his own fate, transforming Boq into Tin Man (so that he no longer needs a heart to stay alive).
The only major index on Boq’s fate in Wicked: Part One is his last name.
Boq appears both in the original book of L. Frank Baum of 1900 “The Wonderful Magician of Oz” and in the novel “Wicked” by Gregory Maguire, but when Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman adapted the latter for the scene, They decided to make a big change: Boq has become a “composite character”, which means that they combined the story of Boq with that of Tin Man to give his story a more dramatic weight. (Boq is actually a very rich citizen of Munchkinland in “The Wonderful Magician of Oz” and even allows Dorothy and Toto to stay in his immense house during his adventure.) In addition, in books, the Tin Woodman is a Character called Nick. Chopper, but it all changes in the musical “Wicked”, making Boq a much more tragic character. (At least he is not alone – Fiyrero becomes his yellow brick road boyfriend, the scarecrow.)
In “Wicked: Part One”, we are Given an important index on the future of Boq – his family name is “Woodsman”, which is a fairly clear reference to the character of L. Frank Baum called “Tin Woodman”. After having become Tin Man, Boq, in the musical, is imbued with rage and desperately seeks to take revenge on Elphaba, perfectly ignoring that the fate that transformed him in fact saved his life; In the musical issue “March of the Witch Hunters”, Boq in the role of Tin Man rallies the citizens of Oz to track down the so-called “nasty West Witch” and destroy it for good. If “Wicked: For Good” follows the musical as faithfully as “Wicked: Part One”, we will see the Boq heel running when it was released on November 21, 2025; As for the first film, it is now available for rental or purchase on digital platforms.
