Before tweeting a QAnon slogan, the team behind anti-choice film Unplanned promoted their movie on a major QAnon YouTube channel

Now the filmmakers are trying to distance themselves from the conspiracy theory

The filmmakers of the anti-abortion movie Unplanned are trying to distance themselves from the QAnon conspiracy theory after the film's account tweeted a QAnon slogan, but days before the tweet the film's directors promoted the movie on a major QAnon YouTube channel. The conspiracy theory centers on an anonymous account claiming to be a government official with a high (“Q” level) security clearance describing how President Donald Trump is “secretly battling a corrupt deep state and an evil cabal of pedophile Satan-worshiping elites.”

On April 1, the Twitter account for the film -- which has been promoted by conservative media and by Vice President Mike Pence -- tweeted, “WWG1WGA,” short for “Where we go one, we go all,” which is a popular slogan among QAnon believers. The account also “liked” responses from QAnon believers praising the tweet. The account later deleted the tweet, and a producer for the film told a National Review writer that an intern wrote the tweet and that “as a producing team and our director, we do not want to be associated with” QAnon.

However, days earlier the film’s directors, Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman, spoke with Kari Donovan, a host for the YouTube channel Patriots’ Soapboax, a 24/7 livestream of QAnon content, which NBC News reported was founded by a 4chan moderator and has played a crucial role in popularizing QAnon. It seemed the film directors were familiar with the channel: Donovan mentioned during the interview that they had sent her a press kit in advance, and one of the directors told Donovan, “We love your show.” As Donovan told the directors, she saw it “as a victory that you're here, filmmakers, on Patriots’ Soapbox, talking directly to the people without any filter of corporate media.” Donovan continued that their appearance was “supporting this channel” and an asset to the viewers because it showed the directors had “very much the same values.”

From a video posted to YouTube on March 28: