Person behind fan edit of ‘Wicked’ poster that Cynthia Erivo called “offensive” explains why they reposted it

nme.com:

Wicked poster that Cynthia Erivo said was “offensive” has explained why they reposted it.The official poster for the forthcoming movie musical was released earlier this month, showing Erivo as Elphaba staring into the camera while Ariana Grande as Glinda whispers in her ear.However, fans noticed that it was slightly different to the original Broadway poster, where Elphaba’s eyes are hidden by the brim of her hat and she is wearing red lipstick.

In response, a fan altered the new poster to make it closer to the original.Erivo, however, wasn’t impressed and hit out at the edited poster, saying it “degrades” her.“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’,” she wrote in an Instagram story.“None of this is funny.

None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”Erivo then shared an image of the unaltered film poster, with the caption: “Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palette.”In response, the fan behind the edited poster removed it from their Twitter/X page, before choosing to repost it along with a statement.“The last few days have been wild & have helped me realise that the initial reaction was largely overblown,” they began. “This is, and always was, an innocent fan edit to pay homage to the original Broadway poster, and there’s nothing wrong with that!“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 continued.