Cynthia Erivo Explains Her Response To The Wicked Poster Edits
She said she “probably” should have kept her reaction offline.
Cynthia Erivo is reconsidering her reaction after setting some boundaries with Wicked fans. ICYMI, Erivo (who plays Elphaba in the movie) took issue with how fans edited the film’s latest poster to make it a more exact recreation of the iconic Broadway one-sheet. But now, she’s walking back on those comments.
“I think I’m really protective of the role. 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 told Entertainment Tonight on Oct. 28. "I probably should have called my friends, but it's fine."
If you missed the drama, things got messy after fans were disappointed by the Wicked movie poster. The original Broadway poster is an illustration of Glinda whispering in Elphaba’s ear. Both of their faces are obscured — Elphaba’s eyes are covered by her hat, while part of Glinda’s face is shielded by her hand. But for the movie, they went a slightly different route. Grande (who plays Glinda) hides less of her face with her hand, and Erivo makes direct eye contact with the camera.
Some fans altered the film poster to be closer to the original, moving Grande’s hand and lowering the brim of Erivo’s hat to cover her eyes. The edits prompted Erivo to respond. “This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful Ai of us fighting, equal to people posing the question ‘is your ***** green,’” she wrote on Instagram Stories, alongside an edited Wicked poster.
“None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us,” Erivo continued. “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.”
“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,” Erivoe added. She followed up by posting the film’s official poster. “Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palette,” she wrote.
Grande seemingly supported Erivo’s statement, posting an IG Story of her own: the unedited Wicked poster. On Oct. 19, she spoke about the situation to Variety. “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 at the Academy Museum Gala. “This is something that is so much bigger than us, and the fans are gonna have fun and make their edits.”
But Grande agreed when the reporter said these edits sometimes go “too far.” She said, “I think so. And I have so much respect for my sister, Cynthia, and I love her so much. It’s just a big adjustment period. It’s so much stimulation about something that’s so much bigger than us.”
Fans had mixed reactions to Erivo’s IG Stories. “people only edited it like that so it resembles the poster from the 2003 musical? it's not that serious, her comparing it to deepfakes and AI is honestly such a wild exaggeration. no one wants to degrade her or ‘hide’ her,” one wrote on X, formerly called Twitter.
But others felt Erivo’s concerns were justified. “if you’re having any reaction to this other than ‘we’re sorry and we see you cynthia’ then u are apart of the problem and need to think of other people’s feelings,” one tweeted.
Following the drama, the fan who originally edited the poster spoke out and reposted the art. “Ok so I’ve decided to repost this - the last few days have been wild & have helped me realise that the initial reaction was largely overblown. This is, and always was, an innocent fan edit to pay homage to the original Broadway poster, and there’s nothing wrong with that!” they wrote.
They continued, explaining that no AI was used in creating their edited version of the poster. “I never meant to cause any harm and the poster is just a homage to the original broadway poster, just like the movie’s recreation is,” the fan added. “Also, I will say that Cynthia is valid in having her feelings on the matter, and I’m also valid in wanting to keep my version of the poster up as I truly meant no harm with it and just made it as a way to show love for the original. Both can be true.”
Wicked is coming out Nov. 22.
