Cynthia Erivo expressed outrage over a fan-made promotional poster for her upcoming film. Evilwhich sparked online discourse and drew a response from director Jon M. Chu and co-star Ariana Grande.

What is the “Wicked” movie about?

Evila film adaptation of the 2003 Broadway musical (itself an adaptation of the 1995 novel), tells a revisionist, sympathetic origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West Wizard of Oz.

Emmy-winning actress Cynthia Erivo plays the role of the evil witch known as Elphaba, and Ariana Grande plays Glinda the good one, while Jeff Goldblum plays the not-so-wonderful wizard.

Both Elphaba and Glinda are subverted beyond their original portrayal as “good” and “bad” witches, with Elphaba portrayed as a misunderstood outsider.

What was the controversial “Wicked” poster?

An iconic poster from the Broadway musical features Glinda whispering in Elphaba's ear, and the image was recreated by the two stars for the upcoming film.

The recreated poster frames the two characters differently to ensure both of the actor's faces are visible.

It made perfect sense for the film's marketing department to feature the two stars, but fans of the Broadway musical felt the striking image had lost its impact, and one fan edited the new poster to resemble the original resembled.

The cut included raising Grande's hand to cover more of her face and completely covering Erivo's eyes. After the edited promo poster was shared online, it made its way to Erivo and the actor was not happy about it.

Taking to Instagram, Erivo posted the altered poster and wrote: “This is the wildest and most offensive thing I've ever seen, just like this horrible AI of us fighting… None of this is funny. None of it is sweet. It humiliates me. “It humiliates us.”

The “AI of Us Fighting” is an AI-generated video that turns the Grande and Erivo poster into a sparring match; The two engage in a disturbing, rubbery battle that looks as scary as any other AI-generated video.

“The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION,” Erivo added. “I am a real human being who has chosen to look directly through the camera at you, the viewer… because without words, we communicate with our eyes. Our poster is a tribute, not an imitation, to edit my face “Hiding my eyes is to erase me. And that’s just deeply hurtful.”

Director Jon M. Chu showed his support for Erivo on his Instagram Story, taking a screenshot of her statement and describing the actress as his “superhero.”

Online, many Evil Fans were surprised by Erivo's reaction as the fan change was not intended as an insult or deletion.

The fan who edited the poster, @midosommar, quickly deleted the image after Erivo took offense, but other commenters reposted the image and created memes about Erivo's reaction.

Erivo's statement that he was “looking at the camera” was jokingly quoted by fans, with some posting pictures of the actress to make sure she didn't “wipe them out.”

Some even suggested that the controversy was just another form of marketing for the film.

After a few days of memes and spiteful jokes, some commenters expressed concern that the backlash to Erivo's statement had gone too far.

In an interview with Variety, Grande tactfully addressed the controversy, commenting on the AI-generated video and the laborious fan editing.

“I think it's very complicated because I find AI so contradictory and problematic sometimes, but I think it's just a pretty big adjustment period,” Grande said. “This is something much bigger than us and the fans are going to have fun and make their changes.”

Grande concluded, “I have so much respect for my sister Cynthia and I love her so much.”

As the dust began to settle, @midosommar reposted the edited image that sparked the drama and clarified that they meant no harm.

They wrote: “Although I initially deleted because I felt it was the right thing to do, fan posters have been around as long as there have been films. I never intended to cause harm and the poster is just a homage to the original Broadway poster, just like the recreation of the film.”

@midosommar concluded: “Also, I would like to say that Cynthia is entitled to express her feelings on this issue and I am also entitled to want to keep my version of the poster as I really meant no harm and just did it.” as an expression of love for the original. Both can be true.”

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