‘Wicked’ poster controversy: Cynthia Erivo is calling out fan-edited image

Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba in the upcoming “Wicked” movie, condemned a fan-edited poster for the film making rounds on the internet.

“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen,” Erivo wrote on her IG stories Oct. 16 underneath the altered piece of art for the film, which depicted Erivo and Ariana Grande as their respective characters, Elphaba and Glinda.

In the original version of the movie artwork, first shared by Universal on Oct. 9, Erivo is looking straight ahead with her eyes fully visible, and her lips are green. But in the altered version shared on Erivo’s IG story, her eyes were hidden by her hat and her lip was bright red and curled upward.

Grande was left mostly untouched besides her hand being moved higher up to show less of her face.

Erivo wrote that the fan-edited version is not “cute” and “degrades” her, continuing, “I am a real-life human being, who chose to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer. . . because, without words we communicate with our eyes.”

Erivo then pointed out in her IG story that the original Broadway poster, which the movie poster was inspired by, was “an ILLUSTRATION.”

When “Wicked” premiered on Broadway in 2003, the illustration of Glinda whispering into Elphaba’s ear was plastered on posters everywhere. In the image, Elphaba’s eyes are hidden beneath her hat’s rim, her lips tucked upwards into a red-lipped smirk, while Glinda’s eye can be seen on her side profile.

“Our poster is a homage, not an imitation,” Erivo continued in her message. “To edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful.”

After calling out the fan-edited image, Erivo posted another Instagram story with the movie’s original artwork, writing, “Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palette.” The film’s director Jon M. Chu reshared Erivo’s slide on his own Instagram Story in support.

During a conversation with Variety on Oct. 19, Grande weighed in on her co-star’s reaction to the fan-edited poster.

“I think it’s very complicated because I find AI so conflicting and troublesome sometimes, but I think it’s just kind of such a massive adjustment period,” Grande told the outlet while at the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles.

“This is something that is so much bigger than us, and the fans are gonna have fun and make their edits,” she continued.

Grande also added that she has “so much respect” for Erivo and that it’s a “big adjustment period.”

“It’s so much stimulation about something that’s so much bigger than us,” the “Into You” singer explained.

Fans seem to be split over Erivo’s reaction to the fan-edited version of the movie’s poster, with some expressing support of her response and why it was justified.

One X user wrote, “All of you supposed ‘wicked fans’ should be f—ing ashamed of yourselves. I don’t care how much you love the original poster. For a show that’s all about prejudice and the color of a young woman’s skin the racism couldn’t be any clearer. You do not deserve this film,” one X user wrote.

Another penned, “Re: the Wicked poster controversy: the optics of editing a Black, queer woman’s face aren’t great. All they’ve done to Ariana is move her hand, while they’ve hidden Cynthia’s eyes and changed her mouth.”

On the flip side, some felt that the edit was simply honoring the original Broadway poster.

“Girl, they was not erasing you… people just wanted the new poster to match the same energy as the Original Wicked poster… you know, one with her eyes covered and she’s smirking…” one person said on X.

Another wrote, “Oh good grief. Tell me you’ve never seen Wicked The Broadway Musical poster without telling me.”