Ariana Grande Responds to Cynthia Erivo’s Comments on Edited Wicked Poster: ‘Something That Is So Much Bigger Than Us’

Ariana Grande is standing with her Wicked costar, Cynthia Erivo.

While speaking to Variety at the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles on Saturday, Oct. 19, Grande weighed in on the AI-edited poster for the upcoming movie that was manipulated to cover her Erivo’s face.

“I think it’s very complicated because I find AI so conflicting and troublesome sometimes, but I think it’s just kind of such a massive adjustment period,” Grande, 31, said. “This is something that is so much bigger than us, and the fans are gonna have fun and make their edits.”

When asked if sometimes things can go “too far,” the “Thank U, Next” singer said, “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.”

She added, “It’s so much stimulation about something that’s so much bigger than us.”

On Wednesday, Oct. 16, the Bad Times at the El Royale actress, 37, slammed an AI-edited poster for the Wicked movie. The poster had been manipulated in an attempt to match the Broadway show’s original rendering, which hides the face of her character, Elphaba.

“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,’ ” Erivo wrote on her Instagram Stories. “None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.” 

“The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION,” she continued. “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.” 

Erivo also noted that the movie’s poster was meant to be an homage to the Broadway show’s iconic poster, not an exact copy. “To edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me,” she concluded. “And that is just deeply hurtful.”

The Tony winner also shared the unaltered movie poster, which shows her looking straight into the camera, on her Instagram Stories. “Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palette,” she wrote.

Wicked premieres on Nov. 22, 2024; Wicked Part Two is slated for a Nov. 26, 2025 release.