diff --git a/meta-selftest/recipes-test/images/wic-image-minimal.bb b/meta-selftest/recipes-test/images/wic-image-minimal.bb
index 9e93b8e1a9..b687935c49 100644
--- a/meta-selftest/recipes-test/images/wic-image-minimal.bb
+++ b/meta-selftest/recipes-test/images/wic-image-minimal.bb
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ IMAGE_INSTALL = "packagegroup-core-boot ${ROOTFS_PKGMANAGE_BOOTSTRAP}"
 
 IMAGE_FSTYPES = "wic"
 
-DEPENDS = "syslinux syslinux-native dosfstools-native mtools-native gptfdisk-native"
+WKS_FILE_DEPENDS = "syslinux syslinux-native dosfstools-native mtools-native gptfdisk-native"
 
 LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "file://${COREBASE}/meta/COPYING.MIT;md5=3da9cfbcb788c80a0384361b4de20420"
 
diff --git a/meta/classes/image_types_wic.bbclass b/meta/classes/image_types_wic.bbclass
index d012a5d5ca..500c8c5653 100644
--- a/meta/classes/image_types_wic.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/image_types_wic.bbclass
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ USING_WIC = "${@bb.utils.contains_any('IMAGE_FSTYPES', 'wic ' + ' '.join('wic.%s
 WKS_FILE_CHECKSUM = "${@'${WKS_FULL_PATH}:%s' % os.path.exists('${WKS_FULL_PATH}') if '${USING_WIC}' else ''}"
 do_image_wic[file-checksums] += "${WKS_FILE_CHECKSUM}"
 do_image_wic[depends] += "wic-tools:do_build"
+WKS_FILE_DEPENDS ??= ''
+DEPENDS += "${@ '${WKS_FILE_DEPENDS}' if d.getVar('USING_WIC') else '' }"
 
 python do_write_wks_template () {
     """Write out expanded template contents to WKS_FULL_PATH."""