massive, massive Spoilers for Act 2 of the Broadway musical Wicked - which is being adapted into Wicked: For Good - ahead! Stop reading if you want avoid spoilers!

In the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland's Dorothy Gale is surrounded by three companions as she travels down the Yellow Brick Road to meet the Wizard of Oz (four if you count her loyal dog Toto, who traveled with her from Kansas to Oz). These friends and protectors are known as the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) and the Tin Man (Jack Haley), and while Dorothy wants to ask the Wizard to send her home, the Lion, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man have their own agendas. The Lion wants to ask him for courage, the Scarecrow would really like a brain, and as for the Tin Man, he simply wants a working heart.

You're probably familiar with these characters because, well, The Wizard of Oz is one of the most iconic movies of all time... but how does the Tin Man factor into Wicked, John M. part adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name? (While The Wizard of Oz clearly influences the Wicked storyline, I should clarify that the musical does draw on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which is darker than the musical but still serves as the source material.) A character who already we've met in 'Wicked: Part One' will actually become the Tin Man, and it's a tragic story - so here's what to watch out for when The second Wicked movie, Wicked: For Good, comes out later this year.

When we meet Bock in "Wicked: Part One," we immediately realize that he hails from Munchkinland—mostly because he has to stand on a stack of books at Sheez University to meet his romantic rival Prince Fiyero Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey) in the eye—and he is played by Ethan Slater, an actor known for his roles in Broadway shows such as The SpongeBob Musical and Spamalot. (These days, it's Slater also known for his ongoing real-life relationship with Ariana Grande-Butera, who plays Galinda Upland on Wicked and received an Oscar nomination for her supporting role.) Bock is sweet, seemingly shy, and carries a pretty obvious torch for Galinda. who brushes him off to the point that she keeps forgetting his name (for example, she calls him "Bull" many times). When Galinda realizes this, she slyly tells Bock that he should seek out Nessarose Trop (Marissa Bode), the younger sister of unpopular student Shiz Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo, who also scored an Oscar in the leading category), leaving Galinda free to pursue her romance with Fierro.

Bock seems, on some level, to understand that Galinda gives Nessarose as a distraction, but that doesn't mean he's cruel to Nessarose; in fact, he's her date when a whole bunch of Shiz students sneak off to go dancing at the Stardust Ballroom, and he's very genuinely concerned that she have fun. Unfortunately, Bock's relationship with Nessarose is ultimately his downfall—and helps explain how he becomes the Tin Man.

Nessarose really loves Bock, but the way he shows it in the second act of the musical Wicked is, frankly, it's not great. At the end of the first act of the musical (which we already saw on screen in "Wicked: Part One"), Elphaba flees the Emerald City under duress just after she discovers that Shiz University's dean of magic, Ms. Morrible (Michelle Yeo) and The Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) are both on a roll and evil deceptions. As Elphaba runs away, she closes in on the play "Defying Gravity," reluctantly leaving her best friend—who now spells her name only as "Glinda"—as she tries to leave Oz and avoid persecution, and as the film closes, we see Madame Morrible mounting a full PR campaign declaring that Elphaba is the enemy of all that is good in Oz. As Nessarose and her and Elphaba's father, Governor Throop (Andy Nyman) listen to her announcement, Governor Throop collapses, and in Act 2 of the musical, we learn that he has died (probably of shock).

When Nessarose takes control of Munchkinland as governor (in her father's place), she becomes a tyrannical leader—which is especially bad news for Bock, who ends up trapped in the country and facing a civil rights crisis, all because Nessarose wants to cling to a man he loves so much. When Elphaba shows up to try to reason with her sister, things go from bad to worse, especially when it comes to Bock.

When she discovers that her sister has become the cruel ruler of Monkland (and that her love for Bock has turned toxic), Elphaba tries to do something good for her sister, but it backfires completely. We see, in "Wicked: Part First," that Elphaba and Nessarose's mother Melena (Courtney May-Briggs) left behind a pair of silver shoes, and Elphaba enchants them—turning them ruby ​​red in the process—to help her Nesarosa to walk without the help of her wheelchair. It is extremely important to note here that, on stage, Nessarose is usually played by an able-bodied actor, but Marisa Bode is the first wheelchair user to ever play the role. In September 2024, Bode pointed to Diversity that this particular moment will be different in the second Wicked film, stating, "Authentic casting and portraying an authentic person with a disability is very important, but it's also very important how we are shown. I'm very happy with the changes that have been made, for sure."

None but Bode and John M. Chu doesn't know exactly how that will change in "Wicked: For Good," but the point of the musical is that Bock, seeing Nessarose walking away, abruptly decides she doesn't need her anymore and tries to leave. to be with Glinda. In a rage, Nessarose casts a spell meant to keep Bok with her by focusing on his heart, but all she ends up doing is shrinking his heart because it belongs to Glinda. To save her life, Elphaba casts a spell on herself, turning Bock into the Tin Man (so he no longer requires a heart to stay alive).

Bock also appears in the original book by L. Frank Baum's 1900 "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and Gregory Maguire's novel "Wicked," but when Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holtzman adapted the latter for the stage, they decided to make one big change: Bock became a "composite character," which means they combined Bock's story with that of the Tin Man to give it more dramatic narrative weight. (Bock is actually a very wealthy citizen of Munchkinland in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and even lets Dorothy and Toto stay in his huge home during her adventure.) Plus, in the books, the Muddy Woodman is a character who shouts Nick Chopper, but this all changes in the musical Wicked, making Bock a far more tragic character. (At least he's not alone - Fiero transforms into his yellow brick road buddy, the Scarecrow.)

In Wicked: First Part, we everything given a significant clue about Bock's future - his last name is "Woodsman", which is a pretty clear reference to L's character. Frank Baum referred to as the "Tin Woodman". After becoming the Tin Man, Bock, in the musical, is filled with rage and desperate for revenge against Elphaba, blissfully unaware that the magic that transformed him actually saved his life; in the musical number "March of the Witch Hunters", Bock as the Tin Man rallies the citizens of Oz to hunt down the so-called "Wicked Witch of the West" and destroy her forever. If Wicked: For Good follows the musical as faithfully as Wicked: Part One did, we'll see Bock's heel turn when it comes out on November 21, 2025; as for the first film, it is now available to rent or buy on digital platforms.