Who is the Cowardly Lion in Wicked? Here's how the musical reveals his true identity

4 December 2024, 17:34

By Capital Buzz

Wicked Part 2 will explain how the Cowardly Lion fits into the story of Elphaba and Glinda.

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Let’s set the scene, you’ve gone to watch the Wicked movie and not only have you not watched the musical before, but the last time you watched The Wizard of Oz was on your grandma’s VHS player - naturally, you’re gonna have some questions.

First thiof the film duo`logy runs alongside the same timeline as and it sets the scene for how the Wicked Witch of the West became so…wicked. In fact, Wicked the musical explains the origins of several characters from The Wizard of Oz including Glinda the Good and` the Wicked Witch of the East.

Wicked Part 2 runs alongside the same timeline as The Wizard of Oz and Jon M. Chu has teased that we will see more characters that may be familiar to us, including Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and of course, the Cowardly Lion.

So how does the Cowardly Lion fit into the Wicked story?

WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for the Wicked musical and Wicked Part 2's storyline. Stop reading now if you don't want to know what happens next!

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Who is the Cowardly Lion in Wicked? [Spoilers Ahead]

Wicked's Jonathan Bailey & Jeff Goldblum Tease New Original Songs In Part 2

WARNING: Major spoilers ahead for the plot of Wicked Part 2 and Wicked the stage musical.

WARNING: WICKED MUSICAL SPOILERS BELOW. Picture: Universal Pictures

How does the lion cub in Wicked turn into the Cowardly Lion?

Yes, you’ve already met the Cowardly Lion in the first Wicked movie. In The Wizard of Oz, the Cowardly Lion isn’t given too much of a backstory. However, they beef his character out a little in Wicked.

If you’ve seen Part 1, then you’ve already met the Cowardly Lion as the cub that was brought in during a demonstration at Shiz by the teacher replacing Dr Dillamond. In the film, we see him bring in a caged lion cub who ‘trembles’ in fear, leading Elphaba to cast a spell and save the cub alongside Fiyero.

Elphaba’s character is shown to have a strong streak of social justice and she despairs at what’s happening to the animals in Oz as they start getting treated like secondary citizens and are slowly losing their ability to speak.

After fleeing into the forest, Elphaba shows kindness towards the small creature but what happens after she lets him go? Neither the film, musical nor the original Wizard of Oz filled in the blanks on how the Cowardly Lion grew up.

Viewers met the lion cub in Wicked Part One. Picture: Universal Pictures

The next time we meet him, he’s joining Dorothy alongside the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, who we now know are Boq and Fiyero transformed by Elphaba to save their lives.

However, Boq doesn’t realise the truth of his transformation and blames ‘the Wicked Witch’ for his tin body encouraging the Lion to do the same over his cowardice. This is shown in the song ‘March of the Witch Hunters’ which will appear in Wicked Part 2.

The Tin Man sings: “And the lion also / Has a grievance to repay / If she'd let him fight his own battles / When he was young / He wouldn't be a coward today”. Essentially, he suggests that the Cowardly Lion would have grown up braver if Elphaba had left him to fight his own battles as a cub.

Ultimately, while his path will cross with Elphaba/The Wicked Witch again, the Cowardly Lion is on his own journey during Part 2 to meet the Wizard with Dorothy and ask for confidence as his gift - something he doesn’t realise he’s had in him the whole time.