SPOILERS are ahead.
With Wicked: For Good being one of the biggest 2025 movie releases (just look at its first weekend box office numbers), there are, of course, a lot of different thoughts floating around about the sequel. To speak for myself, I really enjoyed every bit of it even though, yes, the new additions took me off guard at first. I’m a longtime fan of the Broadway musical, and I’m so pleased with how it turned out that I know there will be many Wicked movie marathons in my future. But, I have one question that I think might haunt me for a long time.
Uh… What Happens To Tin Man At The End Of Wicked: For Good?
During For Good, we effectively get the backstories for all the main characters in the original Wizard of Oz story. Perhaps the most tragic of them all is the story of Tin Man, who we learn is Ethan Slater’s Boq. After Glinda emboldened him to ask out Elphaba’s sister Nessa in the first movie, we learn that he’s been sort of kept prisoner by her since. When he tells his friend that he wants to leave, she puts a ban on munchkins leaving the region, which leaves him stuck with her.
This leads into Nessa accidentally turning Boq into the Tin Man when she tries to use the Grimmerie to capture his heart, and almost kills him. Elphaba works quickly to save him, but can only do so by turning him into the iconic Wizard of Oz character without a heart in a rather traumatizing transformation scene. From there, we know he goes on the storied journey with Dorothy, but the movie never tells us how his arc ends aside from that.
Boq’s Story Was Literally Heartbreaking, And They Just Left It That Way
Perhaps this was purposeful, but I felt this loose end to be a particularly sad element of For Good, because what happens to Boq is honestly one of the darkest stories in the whole thing. Boq was in love with Glinda, and he was punished for it, and treated really poorly by Nessa for his initial kindness to her back in their Shiz days. His anger is showcased in the music number, “March of the Witch Hunters,” which declares that he’s “glad” he’s heartless because he’ll be “heartless killing her.” But, we get no payoff for him.
I guess the Tin Man walks away from the events of For Good thinking he did aid in the murder of the Wicked Witch, and perhaps will be touted a hero from now on, but I wish the movie spent at least a single moment wrapping up his story. And, I do have to wonder if the Tin Man ever decides to appeal to Glinda after being in love with her for so long. Of course, Slater and Grande are reportedly together in real life, and have been since filming the movie, so I think it would have been fun if Glinda finally opened her heart to someone who really loved her following Elphaba and Fiyero/Scarecrow running off together.
I guess I’ll be left wondering about this tragic character every time I watch Wicked: For Good forever? Perhaps, there will be some answers in the bonus features somewhere, but, wow, is it a big bummer of the movie that they never gave us some closure with Tin Man.