A friendly Twitter war seems to be brewing between director Zack Snyder and J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot production company. Snyder, as all geeks know, directed "Man of Steel" and is currently filming "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" in Detroit. Abrams, as probably even more people know, is right now directing "Star Wars: Episode VII" in London.
While the two films are engaged in no formal or financial competition -- "Dawn" will be in theaters several months after "Star Wars" -- their parent companies, Warner Bros. and Disney respectively, are certainly rivals at the box office. Either way, what's happening on Twitter appears to be nothing more than a playful game.
It all started back on July 23, 2014 as San Diego Comic-Con was about to begin, when Snyder tweeted a clever mashup of Superman and Star Wars. His image was of Henry Cavill, the actor who plays Superman, wearing Jedi robes and holding a red-bladed lightsaber. (Never mind that red lightsabers are reserved for Sith evildoers and Superman is steadfastly a hero.) The image was retweeted more than 3,000 times, and most people took it as a fun little mashup. Whether it was a staged photo or a photoshopped combination is unclear.
#SuperJedi pic.twitter.com/PyNbELK8UZ
— ZackSnyder (@ZackSnyder) July 24, 2014
But Snyder wasn't done. A little over a week later, he posted another mashup image. This one showed a desolate, desert-like landscape with R2-D2 walking through a canyon alongside not C-3PO, but Batman. It was a recreation of one of the earliest scenes from "Star Wars: A New Hope," where the two droids wander the desert planet of Tatooine, looking for refuge. Snyder named it "BATMAN & R2BIN," and this time, he specifically tagged Bad Robot's Twitter account. It was clearly a photoshopped image that substituted Batman for everyone's favorite golden droid.
BATMAN & R2BIN @bad_robot pic.twitter.com/yWPmGPKJ3f — ZackSnyder (@ZackSnyder) August 2, 2014
The latest development is Bad Robot's first tweeted reply to Snyder. Responding in kind to Snyder, Bad Robot took a standard image of Batman crouching over a Gotham skyline and photoshopped C-3PO into the superhero's spot, complete with black cape. They also took out the Bat-signal and replaced it with the circular emblem of "Star Wars"' Rebel Alliance. Bad Robot titled it "THE C3PED CRUSADER" and tagged Snyder in it. Even though it's clearly an edited image, it's well done.
THE C3PED CRUSADER @ZackSnyder pic.twitter.com/wh0m6GF15p
— Bad Robot (@bad_robot) August 8, 2014
Will Snyder fan the flames by tweeting another mashup of his own? We can't wait to find out.
