Warner Apologizes to Warner Japan for ‘Barbenheimer’ Meme Backlash

In-fighting at Warner Bros. has the studio formally apologizing to its WB counterparts in Japan, who’re outraged about what they see as an insensitive Barbenheimer meme on the U.S. “Barbie” Twitter account.

So, this is the deal … “Barbie” is a WB film, and the movie’s official U.S. Twitter account replied to some fan-created enjoyable artwork of Margot Robbie (as Barbie) driving Cillian Murphy‘s shoulder (as Oppenheimer) with an explosion and hearth within the background.

It is a Barbenheimer gag clearly, and seemingly harmless by itself … that’s, till the U.S. “Barbie” Twitter account chimed in with the remark, “It will be a summer time to recollect,” including some cutesy emojis besides.

That did not sit effectively with people in WB’s Japanese arm — the official Japanese “Barbie” Twitter account blasted its guardian firm for co-signing on the joking atomic bomb imagery.

It wrote, “We take into account it extraordinarily regrettable that the official account of the American headquarters for the film ‘Barbie’ reacted to the social media postings of ‘Barbenheimer’ followers. We take this example very severely. We’re asking the U.S. headquarters to take acceptable motion. We apologize to those that had been offended by this collection of thoughtless reactions. Warner Bros Japan.”

Yep, that is an enormous yikes. 😬

So, in response to that public call-out, Warner issued its mea culpa — “Warner Brothers regrets its current insensitive social media engagement. The studio presents a honest apology.”

BTW, Twitter/X itself did not discover the imagery very amusing, as a result of the corporate really slapped a truth examine Twitter notice beneath — mentioning the a whole lot of hundreds of Japanese deaths that resulted from the U.S.’s choice to drop bombs throughout WWII.

There’s been quite a lot of chatter about “Oppenheimer” and its dealing with of the depiction of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings — particularly, the actual fact the film would not present it in anyway. Some really feel just like the movie glossed over the affect of the bombings … and have discovered it insensitive to the numerous lives misplaced in Japan.

That seems to be the place of Japan as a nation, too … as a result of it has but to set a launch date for the movie inside its borders.