Warner Bros., the studio that produced Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, has now released a public apology in lieu of the recent social media outrage that occured due to the Barbenheimer meme, for offensive content that was reported by Japan. In a new report by Variety, it was stated that Warner Bros Japan had called out the ‘inconsiderate’ tweet about Barbenheimmer made recently by the Twitter, (now called X) handle of the film. (Also read: Barbenheimer box office opening week collection: Oppenheimer and Barbie together make ₹100 crore in India)
Statement of apology
In a new statement, Warner Brothers has released an apology, which read: “Warner Brothers regrets its recent insensitive social media engagement. The studio offers a sincere apology.” This came after a massive online petition by the Japanese public against the studio and a further step taken by the Japanese distribution arm of Warner. The statement was reported by Variety.
What caused the outrage
It so happened that the U.S. account had responded and interacted with some fan posts about Barbenheimer, which alludes to the dual summer releases of Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Both the films released in July 21, and have been dominating the box office worldwide. In a tweet that made a fan made poster of Barbenheimer with Margot Robbie being seated on Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer’s shoulder, the Barbie Twitter handle responded with: “It’s going to be a summer to remember.” X then added a community note on the post that read, “At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945 (Showa 20), an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima for the first time in human history. The particular nature of the damage caused by the atomic bombs is that mass destruction and mass murder occurred instantaneously and indiscriminately.”
In another tweet, when a fan photoshopped a mushroom cloud from the bomb blast as Barbie’s hair for a Barbenheimer poster, the official Twitter handle replied, “This Ken is a stylist.”
Warner Bros. Japan issues statement
Calling out these social media responses, Warner Bros. Japan wrote in a statement published on the Barbie Japan Twitter profile. It read, “We consider it extremely regrettable that the official account of the American headquarters for the movie ‘Barbie’ reacted to the social media postings of ‘Barbenheimer’ fans. We take this situation very seriously. We are asking the U.S. headquarters to take appropriate action. We apologize to those who were offended by this series of inconsiderate reactions. Warner Bros Japan.”
Oppenheimer is a biopic based on the life of nuclear physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, who is also known as the father of atomic bomb, and revolves around his struggles with his own conscience as he prepares the bomb that was used in the second world war. Meanwhile, Barbie is about the plastic dolls created by Mattel, where Barbie and Ken take a trip to real world to fix some problems.