There are lessons to be learned from the Wicked poster controversy

So, if the reviews are to be believed, it turns out the new Wicked movie is pretty good. Critics left, right and centre are waxing lyrical about the musical – whilst also sounding a little surprised. This might be because of the sheer amount of behind-the-scenes drama that preceded its release, perhaps the most notable example being the furore around the movie poster.

There are few musical theatre posters more iconic than the original 2008 West End design for Wicked. The famous 'whisper' design is instantly recognisable, and many were wondering when the 2024 movie would finally tip its pointy hat to the original. But when it finally did, fans were disappointed that Cynthio Erivo's Elphaba wasn't wearing lipstick, and didn't have her eyes covered by her hat. It might not be one of the best movie posters ever, but the whole drama could have been a standard twenty-four hour online furore – if Erivo hadn't responded.

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In response to fan-made edits of the poster that added the lipstick and covered the eyes, Erivo hit out on Instagram describing the amateur poster designs as "the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen equal to that awful AI." She went on to say: "None of this is funny, none of this is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us" and that "To edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me, and that is just deeply hurtful." All fairly valid points, but the mere fact that she responded turned the whole thing into a bonafide 'controversy', drawing far, far more attention to the fan art and prompting a fair amount of mockery.

Erivo eventually reflected on the furore, seeming a little embarrassed by her initial reaction. "“Having that passion for what this piece is and loving it so much and knowing how much I want to communicate through Elphaba, that’s probably where that came from,” She told LA Times. “And so in my little human moment I had … I fell out on the internet, when really I should have just picked up my phone and called a friend."

Now that the film is out, its actual merits are already overshadowing any pre-release drama, which will soon be entirely forgotten. But when it comes to the marketing of the next big, family-friendly blockbuster, there are learnings to take on board from Wicked Postergate. The first is simple from a design perspective. If branding is going to pay homage to something iconic, it needs to do it properly, lest it draw the ire of fans. Paying lip-service isn't enough. Heritage branding is everywhere right now, particularly in logos – but the danger here is that viewers often already have an emotional connection to pre-existing designs. A fresh take on an old classic can provoke joy and delight, but it can just as easily miss the mark.

But the furore also reveals the changing nature of movie marketing, and celebrity. To know that Erivo saw those fan-made posters is to know that she scrolls on social media like the rest of us, and that whether or not she had any input into the film's marketing materials, she certainly has opinions about them. By making it much easier to talk to fans, social media shows that there's every chance the Hollywood elite are seeing your five-minute Photoshop jobs.

And whereas memes and fan edits once felt like internet fodder that the actors sat ethereally above, there's an increasing sense, particularly as the likes of AI continues to put powerful editing capabilities into the hands of the masses, that fan-made posters can make as much, if not more, impact than their genuine counterparts. Indeed, those Barbenheimer posters from 2023 controlled the release narrative so strongly that they might have well been part of the movies' official campaigns. Are we entering an era when amateur designers are doing movie studios' jobs for them?