The highly anticipated release of Wicked is at the center of controversy over fan-made posters, distasteful online jokes, and crude AI-generated memes. Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba in the movie-musical, recently criticized an edited poster that obscured her face to mimic the original Broadway Playbill. Her co-star Ariana Grande has also shared a candid reaction to the image while highlighting AI’s impact on the entertainment industry.
Speaking to Variety at the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles on October 19, Grande voiced support for Erivo after she slammed a viral meme showing Grande’s character Glinda whispering into Elphaba’s ear with a caption reading: “Is your p***y green?”. The pop star acknowledged the growing concerns about how artificial intelligence is reshaping the landscape, saying:
“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. This is something that is such so much bigger than us and the fans are gonna have fun and make their edits… 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.”
Wicked, based on the bestselling novel by Gregory Maguire, is making its long-awaited big-screen debut after two decades as one of the most beloved stage musicals.
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights), Wicked is the first chapter of a two-part film that tells the untold story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, and Glinda the Good Witch, who forge an unlikely friendship as students at Shiz University in the fantastical Land of Oz. The film also stars Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Ethan Slater as Boq, Marissa Bode as Nessarose, and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz.
Cynthia Erivo Claps Back at ‘Hurtful’ Wicked Poster
In the original Playbill cover for the Wicked musical, most of Elphaba’s face is covered by her hat (except her mouth and nose), and the entire right side of Glinda’s face is shown. In Universal’s new poster for the upcoming movie, both of the witches’ faces are shown, prompting several TikTokers to use AI editing to crop Elphaba’s witch hat to cover her eyes. They also changed her lip color from green to red. Glinda’s hand was slightly moved upward to appear as she does in the original artwork.
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Wicked Star Cynthia Erivo Reacts to ‘Offensive’ and ‘Deeply Hurtful’ Fan Poster Edits
A new Wicked poster pays homage to the Broadway promotional art, but fans have altered it in a way that Cynthia Erivo found quite offensive.
While many online viewers reacted positively to the new design, Erivo did not. She blasted the photoshopped posters and memes in an Instagram story. “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 p—- green?” the actress wrote. “None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”
Erivo shared the studio’s official poster and pointed out that it’s “an homage not an imitation.” The Tony winner added:
“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.”
She continued, “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’s response to the edited poster sparked debate on social media, with some saying she overreacted. One X user wrote, “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…”. Grande and Chu also shared the official poster on their Instagram stories, with the director calling Erivo his “super-hero.”
Wicked
Part One will arrive in theaters on November 22. The second film is expected in November 2025.