Wicked's Cynthia Erivo slams "deeply hurtful" Elphaba poster edits

16 October 2024, 15:25 | Updated: 16 October 2024, 17:08

By Sam Prance

"This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen."

Cynthia Erivo has called out people for editing her Wicked poster to look more like the original poster for the musical.

As soon as Universal Pictures began releasing posters for the live-action Wicked movie, fans began wondering if they would recreate the musical's iconic, original poster. Since it debuted on stage, Wicked has become synonymous with the image of Glinda whispering in Elphaba's ear. Fans wanted to see Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande's spin on it.

Last week (Oct 9), Universal Pictures finally shared Cynthia and Ariana's take on the original Wicked poster. However, the poster was met with a mixed response online. Not only that but people also began making memes and editing the poster to look more like original.

Now, Cynthia has slammed the edits and explained why she's offended by them.

• Read more: Wicked fans call out people bullying Boq actor Ethan Slater over new poster
• Read more: Dove Cameron opens up about losing dream role as Wicked's Glinda to Ariana Grande

Watch the trailer for Wicked

In Cynthia and Ariana's poster, there are some noticeable differences from the original illustration that inspired it. First of all, Elphaba can be seen looking directly to camera and she isn't smirking like she does in the original. The poster also gives Elphaba a green lip instead of a red lip. Several edits of the poster have since gone viral online.

Taking to Instagram today (Oct 16), Cynthia shared an edit of the poster that looks more like the original illustration and wrote: "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".

She added: "None of this is funny. None of this is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us."

Explaining their new poster, Cynthia said: "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...because, without words words we communicate with our eyes. Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and to hide my eyes is to erase me."

Cynthia ended by writing: "That is just deeply hurtful." She also shared the original poster in a separate story and wrote: "Let me put this right here to remind you and to cleanse your palette."

As it stands, Ariana and the rest of the cast are yet to react on the edits. We'll update you if and when they do.

Read more Capital Buzz news here:

• Ariana Grande's Wicked co-star Bowen Yang says rumours about her dating life are not true
• Dove Cameron opens up about losing dream role as Wicked's Glinda to Ariana Grande
• Wicked director Jon M. Chu responds to criticism over "dark" first look photos
• Amanda Seyfried reveals she auditioned to play Glinda in the Wicked movie
• Is the Wicked movie two parts? Fans left confused by trailers and posters

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