Cynthia Erivo takes offense and calls out a fan’s edits of the new Wicked movie poster. The star posted on Instagram, calling out not just the fan’s poster but also the other memes that have floated around about the musical.
On Nov. 22, 2024, the new film adaptation of the 2003 Broadway musical “Wicked” will be released in theaters. The musical tells the story of the misjudged Wicked Witch of the West in the tale “The Wizard of Oz.”
In the film, Cynthia Erivo stars as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Ariana Grande as Glinda, the Good Witch. Wicked will be released in two parts: part one this year and part two next year.
On Oct. 9, Universal Studios released a movie poster inspired by the original Broadway poster. The new poster shows Glinda whispering in Elphaba’s ear as Elphaba stares straight at the viewers.
Shortly after the new poster was released, fans took to social media to discuss and express their excitement about the film. Wicked fans loyal to the 2003 Broadway show wanted to see a more accurate of the original poster. One fan, @midosommar on X, edited the new poster to look like the original.
There are only a few minor differences between the original Broadway musical poster and the new film adaptation. In the original poster, Elphaba’s eyes are covered by the hat and she also wears red lipstick while in the new poster, her lips are green and her face is fully visible. Glinda’s arm is moved up a bit, but that’s the only edit made to Grande’s character.
On Oct. 16, Erivo took to Instagram to address the edited poster. On her Instagram story, she posted a statement along with the edited poster below it. “This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen,” she said.
Erivo goes on to mention another fanmade work that she found distasteful. She says that the edited poster is, “equal to that awful Ai of us fighting… None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”
About the AI, there is a video circulating the internet made with AI from the same poster showing Glinda and Elphaba fighting each other. The video was uncomfortable to watch and Erivo wasted no time to address it in her post.
“The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION. 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 said. “Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful.”
Erivo made another post shortly after the first one sharing the new Wicked poster. “Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palette,” she wrote.
The director of the film, Jon M. Chu, reposted Erivo’s story on his to show his support. In Chu’s repost, he calls Erivo his “superhero.”
Grande also gave her input on the situation during an interview with Variety at the Academy Museum Gala. “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,” she said at the 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.”
Grande finished her statement by saying how much respect she has for Erivo. “It’s so much stimulation about something that’s so much bigger than us,” Grande said.
At this year’s Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards (CFDA), Erivo addressed her post in an interview with Entertainment Tonight on Oct. 28. Erivo explained how protective she was over her character, Elphaba.
“I’m passionate about it and I know the fans are passionate about it and I think for me it was just like a human moment of wanting to protect little Elphaba, and it was like a human moment,” she said. “I probably should’ve called my friends, but it’s fine,” she concluded.
Erivo’s reaction shows the tension between fans’ and actors’ perspectives in film adaptations.
