People are talking about The New Yorker's uncanny illustration of Elliot Page

On Tuesday, The New Yorker published an article on Canadian living legend Elliot Page, but the cover image used for the post may have overshadowed the content inside.

Headlined “Elliot Page brings his misfit characters to life,” the feature written by Crispin Long focuses on Page’s achievements as an actor, his role in Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, his journey as a transgender man, and his ability to play characters struggling with identity.

But readers found that there was something just a tad bit uncanny about the cover image, an illustration drawn by brilliant Orlando-based artist Pace Taylor.

Even before Elliot Page—and his character on “The Umbrella Academy”—came out as trans, he had a gift for playing people who were restless in their identities. https://t.co/AdZFbsE0EW

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) July 12, 2022

On The New Yorker‘s social media pages, readers left comments saying they thought the person in the graphic was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, at first.

I thought this was Elon Musk.

— Elena Shalneva (@ShalnevaE) July 12, 2022

One even toyed with the idea of Page potentially playing the billionaire in a biopic.

Can’t wait to see Elliott play @elonmusk in a biopic!!

— NicWallis7777 (@NWallis7777) July 12, 2022

But not everyone received the image neutrally. Tennessee resident Hayley M Pogue had the highest-voted comment on the article on Facebook. “The illustration is doing him dirty,” it said.

“Why’d y’all have to draw my boy like Elon Musk? C’mon now,” asked another commenter, Annie Campbell.

Others only realized why the illustration felt so off when they read the comments about the resemblance with Musk.

The New Yorker/Facebook

“I can’t express this enough — Elon got so much more handsome,” one satirical comment on the article read. “I don’t know what it is. He just looks like… more of a man than he ever has.”

“Y’all did Elliot Page dirty with this,” he concluded, after speculating on what may have led to Musk to suddenly look so handsome.

The unanticipated reaction to the otherwise beautiful illustration may have come about due to Musk being in the news almost daily, and thus being seen by millions on a more-than-regular basis.

The SpaceX founder has been involved in controversy after controversy, dumping a $44 billion deal with Twitter, being cut off by his transgender daughter, and being outed as the father of twins his own employee at Neuralink had last year.

Meanwhile, Page has also been in the public eye a bit more — for more positive reasons. His Umbrella Academy character came out as transgender; he wordlessly ended Jordan B Peterson’s Twitter career; and he’s now being considered for the role of The Flash, replacing controversial actor and the scourge Ezra Miller.

Do you think The New Yorker’s illustration makes Page look like Musk? Or are people just overanalyzing it?

Let us know in the comments.