By Anthony Lund
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Wicked has been revealed to be one of the most anticipated movies still to hit cinemas in 2024, but there is a strong chance that such high expectations will lead to some disappointment among fans. Hinting at the possible discourse of the future, fans on social media have already been taking a chunk out of the most recent piece of marketing for the musical adaptation; a recreation of the Broadway hit’s original poster.
While reimagining the basic piece of artwork with stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande seems like a pretty easy task to get right, fans have called the switch up “cheap” and also criticized a very small but seemingly important change made to the design. Taking to social media, comments on the back of the poster’s release have made it clear that even though Wicked is a contender to rival Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II at the box office this November, it could still have some disenchanted fans to contend with.
One of the biggest gripes about the latest poster focuses on the face of Elphaba. The original Broadway poster has the character’s face obscured by her hat, with only a red-lipped smirk visible, while her fellow witch, Glinda whispers in her ear. The new version makes one major change to this, by showing Erivo’s whole face, without red lipstick or the trademark smirk. This initially led to many airing their thoughts on X/Twitter, which was followed by several users “fixing” the poster.
What Have Fans Been Saying About The Latest Wicked Poster?
Everyone is a critic on social media, and commenting from behind a keyboard has become a mostly consequence-free way of expressing an opinion in a public forum. While there have been no particularly nasty or over-the-top responses to Wicked’s new poster, there have certainly been plenty that feel massively let down by the most recent marketing gimmick.
“This movie has the potential to be the ugliest movie ever created, how do you mess up the Wicked poster this bad,” said X user amandagalis. This is something that Reddit user Firebison was happy to back up by saying, “It looks awful. Like a stare at the camera moment from The Office. Like a complete mockery of the original smirk/ feel of the original poster. Almost like a shot from a cheap early 2000s Disney show.”
X user midosommar took things one step further, sharing their own doctored version of the artwork.
Of course, not everyone was out to throw shade on the image. Buffys on X/Twitter shared in big shouty capitals, “THE BEST POSTER YET. WE WILL BE WATCHING IN THEATERS.” It is very likely that this difference in opinion will be very much present in the first reviews of a movie that sits in one of the most divisive genres in cinema. Wicked has the tough task of pleasing those who have seen the stage show on multiple occasions, while trying to seduce those who are not particularly interested in movies where characters are constantly bursting into song and everyone knows the dance routines.
The battle for the box office begins in a strangely staggered form around the world this November, with the Jon M. Chu movie opening in Australia on November 3, the United States – against Gladiator II – on November 22, and other locations including the U.K. on November 27.
Wicked
Not Yet Rated
Adventure
Fantasy
Musical
- Release Date
- November 27, 2024
- Director
- Jon M. Chu
- Cast
- Cynthia Erivo , Ariana Grande , Michelle Yeoh , Jeff Goldblum , Jonathan Bailey , Ethan Slater , Marissa Bode , Bowen Yang , Bronwyn James , Keala Settle , Peter Dinklage
- Writers
- Winnie Holzman , Stephen Schwartz
- Studio
- Studio(s)
- Marc Platt Productions
- Distributor(s)
- Universal Pictures
- Character(s)
- Elphaba Thropp , Glinda Upland , Madame Morrible , The Wizard , Fiyero Tigelaar , Boq , Nessarose Thropp , Pfannee , ShenShen , Miss Coddle , Doctor Dillamond