The release of Jon Chu’s long-awaited Wicked movie is fast approaching. The movie musical will hit theaters on Nov. 22 and the cast is kicking promotions and press tours into high gear. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are at the forefront of the film, playing the iconic roles of Glinda and Elphaba respectively.
In the past year, Grande and Erivo have graced every red carpet, interview, and even tennis match as a duo, never shying away from channeling their on-screen characters. They have done their best to honor the original Broadway musical and have made it very clear how sacred it is to them to adapt the Tony-award-winning musical for the big screen.
Their latest nod to the Broadway show is a new poster for the movie that replicates the original poster for the 2003 musical. The poster consists of Glinda the good witch dressed in all white, whispering to Elphaba, whose wide-brimmed witch hat covers her eyes and allows only her green skin and red-lipsticked smirk to be seen.
Unfortunately for Grande and Erivo, original Wicked fans are harsh critics, and they weren’t shy about taking to X with their feedback, not all of which is unmerited. The poster is, after all, not nearly as great as it could be. The first glaring problem people have is that Erivo is not wearing red lipstick. Instead, her lips are a darker shade of green, which is constant with Erivo’s incarnation of the character from the movie, but a disappointment to some extent. Fans also think she didn’t do the signature Elphaba smirk justice. To be fair, her facial expression is barely a half smile.
Grande, on the other hand, is barely receiving critiques despite wearing a completely different outfit. Several people commented that the duo’s attempt at the recreation seems “off,” and pointed to the drastic differences in their headpieces as yet another example.
The worst of the worst is that people are comparing Erivo’s green likeness to the animated character Shrek and commenting on whether or not she’s attractive enough to play Elphaba.
It’s natural at this point, in the minds of many Millenials or Gen Z, that any green human-looking thing would immediately draw comparisons to the lovable Scottish Ogre. But rather than a joking comparison between the green witch and the green ogre, people are taking things too far by hurling critiques that essentially equate to thinly veiled racism.
The level of disparaging comments regarding the Shrek comparisons vary in tone, but not variety. They share a common core, and it’s one leading Black actresses have encountered far too often in efforts to degrade their talent and worth. The racist comments claim Erivo isn’t attractive enough to play Elphaba, and that her casting makes the film “Another DEI flick.”
This isn’t the first time a woman of color in a leading role has been berated with racist backlash — take Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid, for example — and it unfortunately won’t be the last. Despite being a Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award-winning actress and singer, people can’t get past the idea that Erivo is playing a version of Elphaba they might not have had in their heads.
Never mind that the trials and tribulations Elphaba experiences in Wicked, one in which the color of her skin makes her the target of ridicule and persecution, mirrors that of Black women all over the world, especially those who dare to defy gravity. Never mind that the inhabitants of Oz use Elphaba as a scapegoat to stay comfortably in the dark about the ugly truths lurking in Oz’s dark corners. No, never mind any of that. We want an Elphaba who’s white because the first actress who ever played her on Broadway was white. Yes, that makes sense.
Shrek comparisons and racism aside, many people are very excited about the film, and not just for the vocals of pop sensation Ariana Grande. Erivo fans agree that her talent, prowess, and jaw-dropping voice will stun on the big screen.
