One Twitter user's ploy to make us believe Steven Seagal is in Blade Runner 2049

Let us be clear: Steven Seagal is not in Blade Runner 2049, despite one innocuous tweet in roundups on Entertainment Weekly, Indiewire and Nerdist that states otherwise.

Jesse Hawken, a writer based in Toronto, tweeted out a scene yesterday from Steven Seagal’s The Perfect Weapon, using its futuristic setting to remark upon the brilliance of Blade Runner 2049. The tweet quickly gained traction and was included in a few of the biggest roundups collecting early reactions to the highly anticipated Blade Runner sequel.

Hawken told Polygon that although shocked people were responding to him on Twitter believing the inclusion of the scene to be true, he was proud that his recipe for nailing a joke like this worked.

“I find that when it comes to making a viral Twitter joke, timing is everything,” Hawken said. “I made the joke right when the embargo on ‘first impressions’ from reviewers lifted (the embargo on full reviews is still up) so content farmers were in too big a hurry to notice the photo was from a recent Seagal film The Perfect Weapon that shamelessly rips off Blade Runner.”

Since Hawken first tweeted the Seagal scene, the tweet has been retweeted more than 300 times at the time of this writing. Instead of admitting that the goof is based on The Perfect Weapon, Hawken has doubled down, trying to convince unconvinced naysayers and Steven Seagal aficionados that the action star has a role in Blade Runner 2049.

“My rule when people explain my jokes to me is ‘Stick to the joke,’” Hawken said. “When I get corrected or challenged, I continue to vouch for its veracity to see how long it takes for them to give up.”

Attempting to keep the joke going for as long as possible, Hawken has come up with answers for those who call him out over the trolling gesture. When asked by one Twitter user where he got the image from, Hawken replied that Warner Bros., the studio distributing the film, had released the material in question.

Another user confronted Hawken with a URL to the specific scene from The Perfect Weapon, asking Hawken to explain how he could still be referring to it as one from Blade Runner 2049. Hawken had the perfect response.

Hawken told Polygon that he believed his friend summed up the situation best: “You literally pwned the entire[Entertainment Weekly] article” and internet at large. At the time of this writing, Hawken’s tweet was still in Entertainment Weekly, Nerdist and Indiewire’s piece.

Blade Runner 2049 will be released into theaters on Oct. 6.