Cynthia Erivo Responds to 'Offensive' Fan Edits of WICKED Movie Poster

Wicked movie star Cynthia Erivo has voiced her frustration over fan-made alterations to the movie's promotional poster and the circulation of offensive online content.

Universal recently unveiled a new poster for the highly anticipated film, featuring Erivo's Elphaba and Ariana Grande's Glinda in a homage to the original Broadway artwork. Notably, the new poster lifts Elphaba's hat to reveal Erivo's eyes.

A fan of the musical took to social media to share photoshopped versions of the poster. These edits lowered Elphaba's hat to obscure her eyes and added bold red lipstick, aiming to more closely replicate the original Broadway design.

Erivo expressed her disappointment on her Instagram story, sharing one of the altered images. "This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen," she wrote. "Equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posing offensive questions about my body. None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us."

She also addressed a viral AI-generated video depicting a fictitious fight between her and Grande's characters, shared online with a particularly salacious comment.

"The original poster is an illustration," Erivo continued. "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."

Directed by Jon M. Chu, the film adaptation of Wicked delves into the backstory of Elphaba and Glinda, chronicling their unlikely friendship at Shiz University in the Land of Oz. The star-studded cast also includes Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, and Bowen Yang.