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Saturday, July 5, 2025

How One Depraved Character Turns into The Cowardly Lion In The Wizard Of Oz







Main spoilers for your complete story of “Depraved” — sure, your complete Broadway musical — lie forward, so proceed down the yellow brick highway with utmost warning!

All through “Depraved: Half One” — Jon M. Chu’s pleasant adaptation of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s acclaimed (and wildly profitable) Broadway musical “Depraved” — we meet a good variety of characters whose tales will take some intense twists and turns within the film’s second half “Depraved: For Good.” The obvious, in fact, is Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo), a green-skinned and impressive younger sorceress who finally ends up enrolled at Shiz College and can finally change into the Depraved Witch of the West; proper by her aspect is Galinda Upland (Ariana Grande-Butera), a peppy and pink-clad scholar who could or could not have legit magical skills and who goes on to change into Glinda the Good Witch. What chances are you’ll not notice, although, is that we have additionally already met the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), and the Tin Man (Jack Haley), Dorothy Gale’s (Judy Garland) three companions within the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz.” So which characters will remodel into these three beloved film characters?

We already know which characters change into the Scarecrow and Tin Man, and we’ll circle again to them shortly — however the reality is that the poor Cowardly Lion will get pushed apart considerably within the “Depraved” musical. He does seem in “Depraved: Half One,” although, so this is the place you’ll be able to spot him.

The lion cub seen in Depraved: Half One turns into the Cowardly Lion

In “Depraved: Half One,” Elphaba realizes one thing sinister is going on whereas she attends Shiz College … which is that Ozappears to be subjugating and tormenting talking animals, which have spent years apparently roaming freely amongst the human populace. Elphaba, who is aware of a factor or two about being completely different, turns into shut with considered one of her professors at Shiz, Physician Dillamond (voiced by Peter Dinklage), a goat who teaches “Life Science” on the faculty and goes to nice lengths to inform his college students about how talking animals are being oppressed throughout Oz. This turns into abundantly clear when Physician Dillamond is dragged away throughout considered one of his lessons, horrifying Elphaba and her fellow college students; he is summarily changed by the brisk and merciless Professor Nikidik (Colin Michael Carmichael), who pulls out a cage containing a lion cub and proceeds to inform the category that he can experiment upon the small creature and guarantee that it’ll by no means communicate.

Elphaba is not nice at holding her magical skills in test, particularly when she feels sturdy feelings — and on account of her fury, she by chance casts a spell involving a bouquet of poppies she gave to Physician Dillamond earlier than his imprisonment, placing everybody within the room to sleep aside from Elphaba herself and Winkie prince Fiyero Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey). The 2 steal the lion cub, run away — stashing him in a motorcycle basket very paying homage to Toto’s most important type of transport in “The Wizard of Oz” — and set him free within the woods, guaranteeing his security earlier than returning to high school. Not solely is that this an necessary scene for Elphaba and Fiyero’s relationship, however the lion cub is very clearly the animal that turns into the Cowardly Lion, which provides us context for the character.

Does the lion cub or the Cowardly Lion seem within the musical model of Depraved?

Sadly for this cute little lion cub, his time in “Depraved: Half One” could be probably the most display time he will get in Jon M. Chu’s two-part movie. The reality is that the Cowardly Lion barely seems within the “Depraved” musical — in reality, each he and Dorothy are sidelined in favor of the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, largely as a result of these characters expertise huge transformations. The Tin Man is first launched into the musical’s storyline as Boq, a Munchkin who falls in love with Glinda however is coveted and finally managed by Elphaba’s youthful sister Nessarose, who’s performed within the film by Marissa Bode and turns into the Governor of Munchkinland after her and Elphaba’s father dies. To try to maintain Boq by her aspect, Nessarose oppresses the Munchkins, and when Boq tries to go away, the longer term Depraved Witch of the East casts a spell that goes horribly fallacious and nearly destroys his coronary heart; Elphaba saves his life by turning him into a person product of tin who would not want a coronary heart. The brainless Scarecrow, in the meantime, is Fiyero, and he is additionally reworked by a spell that Elphaba casts to try to save him from hurt.

Actually, the Cowardly Lion solely exhibits up within the Act 2 quantity “March of the Witch Hunters” within the Broadway musical … form of. Now the Tin Man, Boq, offended at Elphaba, tugs on the Lion’s tail and accuses him of being “cowardly” and unable to share what the Depraved Witch of the West did to him with the livid crowd. Primarily based on this, we are able to safely assume that the lion will most likely play a small position in “Depraved: For Good,” which hits theaters and concludes Elphaba’s story on November 21, 2025.



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