Iconic Wicked poster gets an update for the movie

There is just a month and a half left before movie theaters become the destination of Oz, and the excitement is widespread and palpable. Funko Pop! is rolling out representation of our favorite witches, while Starbucks will be brewing some of Elphaba's Green Elixir for anyone feeling "wicked through and through." The trailers coming out highlight individual characters and there's even a Monopoly game on the way. In one of its simplest rollouts, this musical adaptation has just updated the original poster for the musical.

"What is this feeling?"

The original poster was a very simple, stylized graphic by Dewynters PLC, a company that has historically done art for various West End productions. This poster, depicting Elphaba with a sly smile and Glinda with a secret to tell, was used from the San Francisco production in 2003 and has been used to represent the Tony Award-winning musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holtzman for two decades.

The universality of this poster is to its advantages. There have been many leading ladies since the 2003 period and Idina Menzel, who won her first Tony for the role of Elphaba, wasn't even the first to take on the score. Whether your Elphaba is Jennifer DiNoia or your Glinda is Helen Dallimore, you can recognize the schoolfriends on the poster. There was even a 5th anniversary recording in 2008 that featured the Japanese version of "Popular" and the exhilarating "Gutes Tun," a counterpart to "No Good Deed." The poster was able to be used in every situation for every casting specifically because it was a representation of characters.

"Our paths did cross at school."

This film adaptation is likely to be the only one of its kind and set its own standard for how the roles of the witches of Oz are depicted. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are standing out from the crowd and boldly taking on roles played by dozens of women. Of course the recreated poster features them head-on.

Their choice of dress seems signifcant as well. While the Dewynters PLC version simply delineates the two characters with black and white outfits, we see the witches in the costumes that they wear when mature. Glinda wears the pink dress and tiara that are recognizable from the song in which she declares victory over the Wicked Witch of the West, while Elphaba wears the hat and cloak in which she will flee the Emerald City.

Stay tuned for more anticipation and excitement until we all have "one short day in the Emerald City.”