Cynthia Erivo. Marc Piasecki/WireImage
Cynthia Erivo is not amused with the multiple fan made versions of the Wicked movie poster.
“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen I have seen equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posting is you ***** green?” the actress, 37, wrote via her Instagram Story on Wednesday, October 16, referencing a fan edited poster of the Wicked movie and the viral memes poking fun of when costar Ariana Grande points out Erivo is green in the film’s trailer. “None of this is funny. None of this is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”
The post included a fan edited poster similar to the artwork from the original Broadway show. In the edited piece, Erivo’s eyes are covered by her witch’s hat and she dons red lipstick instead of green. When the Wicked movie dropped it’s own original art earlier this week, many fans expressed their disappointment that it did not recreate the stage adaptation’s iconic poster.
Eriv explained that the movie’s poster decided to go in a more powerful approach compared to the Broadway art.
After nearly 10 years of development, the long-awaited film adaptation of Broadway’s Wicked is finally on the way. The film version of the musical, a theatrical staple since its 2004 Broadway debut, has been in development since 2012. Wicked, based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of […]
“The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION,” she continued. “I am a real-life human being, who chose to look right at the camera to you, the viewer … because without words we communicate with our eyes.”
Ervio also offered an explanation as to why the Wicked film’s poster is different from the one for the award-winning musical.
“Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me,” she said. “And that is just deeply hurtful.”
Cynthia Erivo. Kevin Mazur/Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for OPI
The Oscar winner subsequently shared the movie poster and wrote, “Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palette 💚💚.”
The film’s director, Jon M. Chu, backed Erivo via his social media, calling her his “superhero.”
Ervio stars in Wicked as Elphaba alongside Grande, who portrays Glinda. The cast also includes Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Bowen Yang, Peter Dinklage and more.
The film will be released in two parts with part one hitting theaters on November 22. Erivo applauded the decision to split the production so the lore of The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch could be expanded.
“In this first movie, you get to really get to know [Elphaba] as a young lady and what pushes her to the thing that we get to know,” she said to Entertainment Tonight. “The story gets to be opened. You really get to experience magic, and we can do that.”
Erivo teased that in the first installment, the audience will get to see Elphaba and Glinda’s friendship blossom.
“You can follow these women behind the scenes a little bit more, and you get to learn about the two of them,” Erivo continued. “We’ve expanded on their relationship as friends. That’s a really important special thing that you have in the show, but here you really get to go with them in that. We’ve got something really special.”
Part one of Wicked hits theaters on November 22, while the second film will premiere one year later on November 25, 2025.
