Director Adam McKay has insisted the presence of his film crew in a scene in Don’t Look Up was a deliberate choice and not an editing error.

Around one-and-a-half hours into Netflix’s satirical disaster comedy, the crew are seen in the background of a shot, prompting fans to claim he and his editing team had made a glaring error while putting the movie together.

Fellow filmmaker Ben Kohler posted a video on TikTok showing the frame in question, which he titled “oopsy”. His post was picked up by reporters at E! News and shared on social media.

Responding to the outlet’s article, McKay insisted it was a deliberate choice to leave the crew in the movie.

“Good eye!” he wrote on Twitter. “We left that blip of the crew in on purpose to commemorate the strange filming experience.” The director did not say anything else on the matter.

McKay previously revealed the difficulties he had in making Don’t Look Up during the Covid-19 pandemic. The cast, which include Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, and Jennifer Lawrence, and crew were all quarantined and the set was divided into specific zones, with designated Covid-19 monitors.

“The big key was that Netflix was willing to guarantee the safety of filming because none of us were going to show up unless we were safe,” McKay told The Hollywood Reporter.

Although it has received mixed reviews, fans of the film have pointed to its poignancy amid the pandemic. Lawrence and DiCaprio play two astronomers who warn that humanity will be wiped out by an incoming asteroid, only to see their prediction spark a culture war and political shenanigans.

Don’t Look Up is streaming on Netflix now.

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