Warning: This article contains spoilers for Wicked (film/musical version).
Interwoven with the compelling origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West, Evil presents several other Wizard of Oz backstories, including that of Dorothy’s “Cowardly Lion.” Evil It primarily follows Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), an ostracized witchcraft student who is cast as the Wicked Witch to cover up a conspiracy. Sharing the spotlight with Elphaba is her rival-turned-best friend, Galinda (Ariana Grande), destined to become Glinda the Good. Along the way, the Evil The cast includes other notable Ozian figures, clarifying his role in the stories of Elphaba, Glinda, and Dorothy.
In a story largely about labels and misdirected anger, Elphaba’s encounters with familiar characters contribute to increasing frustration with the audience and how she feels like she can’t do anything right. Even so, for each Wizard of Oz character appearing in Evilthe Cowardly Lion occupies a unique space in the narrative. The slight absurdity of how Evil use the Cowardly Lion’s batteries on the obstacles Elphaba faces, illustrating Oz’s difficult circumstances and challenging Glinda to stand by her friend, which she should have done all along.
Elphaba saves the cowardly lion as a cub in Wicked
Elphaba and Fiyero rescue a Lion Club from their cruel teacher
After the dismissal of goat professor Dr. Dillamond (Peter Dinklage) from the Shiz University faculty, the students in Evil are instructed by a cruel surrogate who intends to convey to them the desire for systematic oppression of Oz’s anthropomorphic animal population. The new teacher brings a caged lion cub to class, demonstrating how imprisoning it from a young age will mean it will never learn to speak. Elphaba, who is close to Dillamond and defends animals around the world Evilcauses a magical commotion, allowing Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) to grab the lion cub before they both run out of the classroom.
Throughout the encounter, Elphaba is just kind and supportive of the cub, showing deep compassion.
Elphaba and Fiyero go to the forest somewhere near Shiz and free the lion cub. Throughout the encounter, Elphaba is just kind and supportive of the cub, showing deep compassion. This adventure coincides with Elphaba and Fiyero’s emerging feelings for each other and is something they share in the future. Ultimately, Elphaba’s passionate responses to injustice draw Fiyero to her, inspiring him to act in the same way. Although this causes tension with Glinda, who, for all intents and purposes, is in a relationship with Fiyero, the lion cub returns later in the story.
What happens to the lion cub after Elphaba frees him?
The cowardly lion time between Elphaba and Dorothy was ignored
After being freed from captivity by Elphaba, not much is known about the lion’s experiences in the intervening period in the film/musical version of Evil. However, he grows up to be the famous, shy character everyone knows. At some point, the lion meets Dorothy, as well as Boq (Ethan Slater), Elphaba’s former classmate who becomes the Tin Man. Boq bitterly blames Elphaba for his tin state, unaware that she turned him to save his life after his jealous sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) cast a wrong spell to make him fall in love with her.
During the musical number “March of the Witch Hunters”, Boq tells an angry crowd of witch hunters about Elphaba’s “crime” against him and tries to get the lion to do the same. Boq states: “If she [Elphaba] leave it [the lion] If he fought his own battles when he was young, he would not be a coward today.“It’s a flimsy justification for animosity when, if she hadn’t rescued him as a puppy, he would have been treated like an inferior animal his entire life and wouldn’t have had this conversation with Boq. It also ignores the role of Fiyero, who is considered primarily a hero in Oz.
How Wicked’s Cowardly Lion Origin Changes The Wizard of Oz
The cowardly lion appears to be unaffected by the alleged prejudice towards animals in Oz
Like few other examples in Evil, The Cowardly Lion’s origin story shows how Elphaba can do everything right and do something objectively good, and still come out as the villain. It also frames the lion in a new light throughout the events of The Wizard of Ozwhen supposedly there is a lot of discrimination directed at talking animals, abusing them until they accept their inferior status and forget to talk. Everyone in the Emerald City is nice to him and he can talk, which is probably only because Elphaba freed him.
The lion still receives his gift from the wizard (Jeff Goldblum in Evil) and finds your confidence. However, the events of Evil suggest that he is either very ungrateful to Elphaba for helping him out of an even worse situation or has been misled by people like Boq into believing that everything wrong in his life wouldn’t be this way if it weren’t for the actions of the Wicked Witch of the West. In many ways, Evil shows how people blame instead of working to find a solution, making the Cowardly Lion an intriguing facet of the story.