How Fiyero Tigelaar Evil Becomes a Scarecrow From The Wizard of Oz

If you’re not familiar with the full story of “Wicked” — as in, anything beyond the events of the movie “Wicked: Part One” — don’t keep going down the yellow brick road! Major spoilers lie ahead!

If you are even slightly familiar with “The Wizard of Oz” – 1939 adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” – you probably know the four main players of the film. You have Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland), a girl who is transported from Kansas to Oz thanks to a magical tornado, who meets the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), the Tin Man (Jack Haley), and r Scarecrow (Ray Bolger). ) in wonderland. (Because the film presents Oz as the setting of a magical dream that Dorothy has, Lahr, Haley, and Bolger also play a farmer who works on the Gale family property in “real life.”) Almost a century later, audiences returned to Oz thanks to Jon M. Chu’s Adaptation of the hit Broadway musical “Wicked,” itself adapted from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 Oz-centric prequel novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of Wicked Witch of the West,” but the Scarecrow only appears briefly in the opening. Those in the know, though, know we’ve already done that met the Scarecrow — because in Stephen Schwartz’s musical, one of the main characters is coming the Scarecrow in Act 2.

So who is destined to be the brainless Scarecrow who ends up begging the Wizard for some gray matter to put in his head? That would be the Winkie prince, Fiyero Tigelaar, played by “Bridgerton” and “Fellows” Jonathan Bailey. If you’re impatiently waiting for “Wicked: For Good” — the second half of Chu’s recently retitled “Wicked” epic — here’s how we think Fiyero will be transformed when the film releases in November this year.

After Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo) and Galinda Upland (Ariana Grande-Butera) arrive at Shiz University and begin their studies, the entire student body goes wild over the arrival of Fiyero, an extremely handsome prince whose irreverent and rebellious behavior has caused it. kicked out of several other schools. When Fiyero appears in Shiz, the girls especially titillated, including Galinda, who goes out of her way to flirt with him; In particular, Elphaba is unimpressed by his behavior and disdain for knowledge and study, which clearly means that Fiyero is fascinated by the green-skinned girl who won’t give him the time of day .

Fiyero convinces the entire student body to sneak out one night and go dancing and party at the nearby Stardust Ballroom, and Galinda – furious that she has to share her single room with Elphaba, who is only studying at Shiz after performing magic that attracts by accident. the attention of the school’s Dean of Sorcery Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) convinces Elphaba to wear an uneven witch hat, humiliating her. Eventually, Galinda joins Elphaba in a dance, bonding the two forever, and the duo begin spending time with Galinda’s “boyfriend”, Fiyero. Although Fiyero seems airheaded and misguided, he and Elphaba team up to help a scared lion cub (who, we imagine, may grow up to be a Cowardly Lion) after animals are banned from learning in Shiz and a cruel teacher trying to experiment with him. the cub; after they share a moment together in the forest, Elphaba laments the fact that Fiyero loves Galinda and not her (the mournful ballad “I’m Not That Girl”). Once Galinda, who shortens her name to “Glinda” in honor of her dead animal teacher Dr. Dillamond (Peter Dinklage), and Elphaba go to Oz to meet the Wizard, we won’t see Fiyero again – so what can we expect to see from him in “Wicked: For Good?”

At the end of “Wicked: Part One,” Glinda has allied herself (reluctantly) with the evil Madame Morrible and the Wizard himself (Jeff Goldblum) after allowing Elphaba to escape their clutches on a broomstick — so where is Fiyero in all this? He is back in Shiz, and when we see him again in the second act of the musical “Wicked”, he is the Captain of the Wizard’s Guard for Oz and is engaged to Glinda. Fiyero is still in love with Elphaba, though – which Glinda seems to know innately, especially given that Madame Morrible orchestrated their engagement entirely to boost morale in Oz and distract from her evil deeds done alongside the Wizard – and when Elphaba takes huge risks and returns to Oz to try and free the Wizard’s flying monkeys, Fiyero protects her. He also disappears with her, leaving Glinda devastated (she sings her own rendition of “I’m Not That Girl,” actually).

While hiding in a remote forest, Fiyero and Elphaba sing a duet, “As Long As You’re Mine,” revealing that they love each other … but after Elphaba is forced to try to save her sister Nessarose (played by the lovely newcomer Marissa Bode in “Wicked: Part One”), Fiyero ends up captured by the Wizard. Elphaba believes that Fiyero is dead and casts a spell to try and save his life; since he is not dead, the spell transforms him into the Scarecrow, and after Elphaba fakes her death by water (at Dorothy’s hands) using a handy trapdoor, Fiyero and Elphaba run away together as the musical ended.

Is Fiyero’s fate different in Gregory Maguire’s original version (and frankly, a lot darker) novel? Yes, really! I guess we won’t have to worry much about Fiyero’s journey in the “Wicked” book because Jon M. Chu’s movies certainly seem to stick to the plot of the musical, but only for a certain amount of time. -text, this is the agreement with Fiyero in the book (actually, books; Maguire wrote a miniseries).

In the book, Fiyero marries after Elphaba officially “becomes” the “Wicked Witch of the West” and has three children (not with Glinda), but he and Elphaba have a relationship anyway… and on after Fiyero was discovered in the company of Elphaba and punished, he is shocked by the discovery of Liir, the child he had during his association with Elphaba. From there, the Wizard takes the entire Tigelaar family prisoner, including all of Fiyero’s legitimate children – and when Elphaba begs the Wizard to release them, he reveals that they are all dead except for Fiyero’s daughter , Nor. Elphaba in fact dies from the bucket of water in the book and Fiyero never resurfaces, so not only can we assume that the Wizard actually killed him, but he does. no become a Scarecrow. See why Chu is adapting the musical and not the book? The end of the book is definitely unhappily — even with Elphaba defeated and dead, Oz is plunged into political turmoil for years afterwards.

Fiyero’s big musical number in “Wicked: Part One” – had Jonathan Bailey absolutely smashing – is the long song “Dancing Through Life,” where he extols the virtues of living an ignorant life free from thought and worry. If you know that Fiyero’s fate in the musical is that he becomes the Scarecrow, you might want to look and listen more closely to the lyrics of “Dancing Through Life,” which offers huge clues about that outcome.

The whole song is literally about not thinking, but a ton of the lyrics point directly to not having a brain. “Dancing through life, skimming the surface / Gliding where the turf is smooth / Life is more painless for the brainless / Why think too hard when it’s so soothing?” Fiyero sings early in the song, repeating this sentiment in various ways: “Life is reckless when you’re reckless / Those who don’t try never look foolish .” Sure, one could argue that Fiyero is speaking in metaphors, but if you take it literally, he’s saying that the best way to experience your one precious life is to stop thinking altogether, and he say that enforce to do when he loses his brain and becomes the Scarecrow later in the story.

Remember how Fiyero and Elphaba save lion cubs from cruel experimentation and basically start their relationship in the process? The whole reason they were able to get the lion cub safely out of Shiz in the first place is because Elphaba, was upset at the idea of ​​the lion cub being tortured in front of her and a room full of students, perform a. a spell that sends poppies flying through the classroom … and the flowers put everyone to sleep. Everyone, that is, except for Fiyero, who remains fully conscious and ensures that the lion cubs reach the trees and out of harm’s way, earning a claw on his face for his trouble.

Why is this relevant to Fiyero’s future status as the Scarecrow? You may remember that in “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion pass out in a field full of – you guessed it – poppies. The Scarecrow, though, manages to stay awake for some reason, somehow immune to the spell cast by the Wicked Witch of the West—or, as he knows her, Elphaba. In the stage musical, Elphaba manages to temporarily blind the whole class apart from Fiyero – so they both save the cubs in that version too, but Jon M. Chu’s choice could change the scene and the inclusion of poppies being a very clear clue so far. as Fiyero is concerned.

“Wicked: Part One” is available to rent or buy on demand now.