‘Wicked’ star Cynthia Erivo hits back at fans who edited movie poster: ‘Most offensive thing I have seen’

After the release of the official poster of her upcoming movie musical Wicked in which she stars alongside Ariana Grande, Erivo, 37, was forced to battle against a fan-made image depicting the original version of the art.

For those of you who might not have seen it, the recent release shows Erivo in character as Elphaba looking directly at the camera while Glinda (played by Grande) is seen whispering in her ear.

The image is very similar to the illustration used to promote the original Broadway musical, although fans were quick to point out certain key differences like Elphaba’s eyes are covered by the brim of her hat, her lips are a bright shade of red, and she is smirking.

The fan account @wickedmexicofans on Instagram was one of many to post an edited version of the poster that more closely resembled the illustration, which was done using an AI tool, though the British actress was not pleased by the viral recreation.

Taking to Instagram Stories, the performer hit out at fans, reposting the image alongside a statement that read: “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.’”

The actress released a statement on Instagram Stories. Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety/Getty

She continued: “None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us. 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,” the star added.

Erivo then followed the statement up with the new release of the poster, with the caption: “Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palette.”

Credit: Instagram

Public opinion of the move seemed divided, so much so that the actress disabled comments on her post, but that did not stop fans from taking to other images on her Instagram feed to let their views be known.

“It’s not that deep girl. People are dying,” wrote one user.

“You are a very privileged person. Picking fights with fans of Wicked over a fan edited photo is in very poor taste, just weeks before the movie’s release, and reeks of emotional immaturity on your part,” another added.

“Woah almost as good as broadway! Or are we not allowed to talk about that based on your reaction to a simple poster,” a third chimed in.

Over on X, the response seemed to be similar.

“Imagine thinking fans editing a bad Wicked movie poster to be more like the Broadway poster is “THE MOST OFFENSIVE THING EVER SEEN”… in an election season… as we face wars… This Cynthia Erivo is an insufferable idiot. Get over yourself girl before you tank your own movie,” this user commented.

Another added: “Cynthia Erivo calling this the wildest, most offensive thing she’s ever seen while there’s a literal genocide happening in Palestine as we speak. Kim, there’s people that are dying… literally.”

Erivo stars alongside Grande in the Wicked movie musical. Credit: Kevin Mazur/MG24/Getty/The Met Museum/Vogue

Others defended the star for voicing her opinion on the poster.

“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,” said one person, while this X-user also commented: “Of course people are in the replies invalidating her feelings but had Ariana posted this it would be YASSS QUEEEN SET YOUR BOUNDARIES!!!”

The news comes shortly after Erivo and Grande announced that tickets for the Wicked musical would be available to book from October 9.

The movie is set to be released in theatres on November 22.

Featured Image Credit: Tommaso Boddi/Getty/Gold House