Everything you need to know about the recent Wicked poster fan edit controversy

Here's everything you need to know about the Wicked poster fan edit controversy.

As you may know by now, Ariana Grande, 31, and Cynthia Eviro, 37, will be starring in the highly anticipated movie musical, Wicked: Part One.

In the film, which is directed by Jon M. Chu, the actresses will respectively play Glinda the Good and Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West).

The film adaptation of the stage musical has already stirred up some controversy before its official release on November 22.

This all began last week when the official movie poster was released on social media. The picture showed Elphaba (Erivo) looking directly at the camera, while Glinda (Grande), is whispering in her ear.

The movie's version evoked the original Broadway illustration, however, there were a few tweaks as Elphaba’s eyes were not covered by the brim of her hat and her lips were not a bright shade of red and arranged in a cunning smirk.

It instead framed the two iconic characters differently so both of the actresses’ faces could be seen by the audience.

Many fans of the Broadway musical were not content with the new poster and felt that it had lost its impact. They decided to flood their social media with photoshopped corrections that more closely resembled the original illustration.

The edited promotional poster instead raised Grande's hand to cover more of her face and covered up Eviro's eyes entirely.

After being shared online, the altered image found its way to the Tony Award-winning actress, who took to her Instagram to issue a scathing attack on fans.

Cynthia Erivo’s Instagram posts calling fan edits to the ‘Wicked’ poster ‘offensive'. Credit: Instagram Story

The actress shared an edited picture from the Instagram account @wickedmexicofans, and blasted: "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 "AI of us fighting" is an AI-generated clip that sees Grande and Erivo engaging in an unsettling fighting match.

“None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us," she slammed. “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," she concluded.

The fan who created the edited Wicked poster that was heavily criticized by Erivo has now spoken out.

They took to X (formerly Twitter) to write: "Ok so I’ve decided to repost this - the last few days have been wild & have helped me realize that the initial reaction was largely overblown."

"This is, and always was, an innocent fan edit to pay homage to the original Broadway poster, and there’s nothing wrong with that," they continued. "I’ve also seen some people take credit for this and don’t think that’s totally fair so I’m coming out of the woodworks lol.

"While I deleted initially as I felt it was the right thing to do, fan posters have been around for as long as movies have existed," they said, adding that they "never meant to cause any harm and the poster is just a homage to the original Broadway poster, just like the movie’s recreation is."

The X user ended their post by penning that the actress was "valid in having her feelings on the matter," and that they were also "valid in wanting to keep my version of the poster up".

"I truly meant no harm with it and just made it as a way to show love for the original," they ended the thread.

Cynthia Erivo, and Ariana Grande with Wicked director Jon M. Chu. Credit: Emma McIntyre / Getty

Grande, who is Erivo's co-star in the movie, initially remained quiet about the situation, but has now shared her thoughts, calling the situation "complicated".

Speaking to Variety at the Academy Museum Gala on Saturday (October 19), the 'Thank U Next' singer said: "I find AI so conflicting and troublesome sometimes, but I think it’s just kind of such a massive adjustment period." (It's important to note the fan who created the edit said no AI tools were used).

“This is something that is so much bigger than us, and the fans are gonna have fun and make their edits," she added.

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

Asked if she thinks fans can go “too far," the 'Thank U Next' vocalist responded: “I think so. And I have so much respect for my sister, Cynthia, and I love her so much."

"It’s just a big adjustment period. It’s so much stimulation about something that’s so much bigger than us," she added.

Wicked is set to be released next month.

Featured image credit: Gabe Ginsberg / Getty