Cynthia Erivo Condemns Offensive Alteration of Wicked Film Poster
British actress Cynthia Erivo has publicly criticized a fan for digitally altering her image from the highly anticipated Wicked film poster, labeling it as “offensive” and “deeply hurtful.” Erivo, who takes on the iconic role of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in the upcoming adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical, appears on the poster alongside Ariana Grande, who portrays Glinda. In a nod to the original stage play poster, Glinda is depicted whispering to Elphaba, but instead of the character smirking while her eyes are obscured by a black hat, she is shown looking directly ahead.
One fan attempted to modify the film poster to more closely resemble the original stage production, a move that Erivo called “the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen.” In her response, she stated, “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.”
In addition to addressing the altered poster, Erivo also took a stand against various Wicked memes circulating online. This includes one that made a crude joke about Elphaba’s anatomy and another that featured an AI-generated video of the two actresses in a fictional fight. She remarked, “This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posting the question, ‘is your * green?’ None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”
To reinforce her point, Erivo shared an image of the original film poster, captioning it: “Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palate.”
The film Wicked, directed by Jon M. Chu, is set to premiere on 22 November—the same day as Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II. This timing has led fans to suggest a new cinematic double-bill reminiscent of the viral Barbenheimer phenomenon, coining the term ‘Glicked’. The musical film boasts a star-studded cast, including Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, and Bowen Yang, and will be released in two parts, with the second installment scheduled for 25 December 2025.
