Wicked star slams “offensive” edited poster and AI fight with Ariana Grande

Cynthia Erivo, who plays the Wicked Witch of the West in Wicked, has seen the edited version of the poster – and she thinks it’s the “most offensive thing” she’s ever seen.

Erivo will star alongside Ariana Grande in Wicked, which is already poised to be one of the highest-grossing movies of 2024.

However, despite far-and-wide excitement to see the 21st century’s defining musical on the big screen, it has attracted criticism. For example, even now, trailers haven’t made it clear that it’s the first of two movies, with its sequel set for release in late 2025.

Notably, its official poster makes two big changes to the musical’s original artwork: you can see Elphaba’s face, and Galinda’s hand barely covers her face. The reason why is obvious: the studio wants people to see and recognize the actresses in the movie, and that’s a bigger priority than simply recreating the first poster.

However, fans weren’t impressed, so they edited it with Galinda’s hand moved and the shadow from Elphaba’s hat covering the top half of her face. There’s also a strange AI-animated version of the poster that shows the two characters fighting.

Erivo shared both posters on her Instagram story, branding the edited version as “the wildest, most offensive thing I have ever seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posing the question ‘is your ***** green’.”

“None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us,” she continued.

“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.”

Wicked hits cinemas on November 26, 2025. Just over a month away from release, its Wicked x Stanley collection has been causing chaos in Target stores.