The Copycat Killer Premiere Twibbon: "We Decided to Do a Little Promotion Work on Our Own"

The Copycat Killer premiered on Lifetime on Saturday, August 29, 2026, at 8pm, with Melissa O'Neil as a criminal profiler pulled back into a case she thought she had closed years earlier.

In the few days leading up to the premiere, a Twibbon was launched on the platform, The Copycat Killer Premiere. It was posted to X by the creator themself, Chris (@spacychris), complete with a tip on how to set it best as an X profile picture. Soon, hundreds of people joined, their profiles were dripping with blood around their faces, matching the ominous tone of the thriller movie.

Chris posted the Twibbon in anticipation of the film. Credit: @spacychris

Truth be told, this was not the only thing the fandom had done in anticipation of the movie. In the weeks before it aired, some fans sat in front of their preferred screens, tuned into Lifetime, and waited for hours to catch the trailers as they aired and record them for everyone else.

"We were running our own little promotion campaign," Chris wrote to us at Twibbonize. "We love Melissa very much and wanted to support her from our side. Since we also didn't see a lot of promotion from Lifetime's side we decided to do a little promotion work on our own."

Getting back into drawing through fandom

Chris is 27 and lives in Munich, where they work as a graphic and media designer, animator and film editor for a small media firm.

"I love a strong female character," they explained when asked what drew them to the film. "I love stories about women fighting for themselves and coming out winning on top despite the male-dominated field they work or live in. That's something I tend to look for and love the most."  

Chris also added, "Melissa as a person is a strong woman as well that knows her place in the world and how to defend it. That's what I admire about her."

Chris has been drawing since they were 13, and fanart has been "a huge part, if not the biggest part in my art journey," starting with The Mentalist, a show starring Simon Baker as a psychic-consultant to the California Bureau of Investigation, which ended in 2015. When that fandom emptied out, so did Chris's drawing. "I had taken a long break from posting art online," they said. "As I wasn't really feeling like anyone wanted to see my art."

But it seems Chris's love for procedural dramas hadn't taken a break, and it eventually arrived at the hit ABC show The Rookie. There, Melissa O'Neil plays opposite a staple of the genre, Nathan Fillion. O'Neil's character Lucy Chen steals many hearts for her adorable yet snarky demeanor, and for being unafraid to hold her own when it's needed.

Chris recalled getting into the fandom like coming home. "I now found really good friends in The Rookie fandom who really appreciate my art and that motivated me a lot and I'm so very grateful for all of them. They support me during times when I don't feel like drawing at all and cheer me on and celebrate my art when I do draw and post. I love them to death."

It wasn't started by one person

One sure thing that holds across any fandom is that it doesn't start with one person's activity. It's a couple of people finding each other and exchanging their thoughts. The couple of people gradually form a whole community.

So it was with the frame. It didn't come to fruition by Chris alone. It started with two mutuals, Court and Pat, talking about celebrating the premiere. Then Chris made the design. Zoe, another mutual friend, and Pat worked on it with them.

"My closest fandom friends helped me with the design, I went through a couple different versions and tested them with their profile pictures." That is the craft lesson in this story. Chris ran the selfie test on the faces of the people who would go first, and threw out the versions that did not work.

Choosing where to publish it was less deliberate. "I chose twibbonize because it was the easiest to use out of all the platforms." Earlier in the year, a mutual named Zee made a frame for the season eight finale of The Rookie, when the fandom was predicting an engagement for their favorite couple, Lucy Chen and Tim Bradford (played by Eric Winter). "So it made the most sense to use your site since most people already knew it." A fandom that has already used a link once does not have to be persuaded the second time.

When the Twibbon left the bubble

Chris first posted the Twibbon on X to the people they talk to every day. "I honestly thought only my friends and mutuals who I interact with on a daily basis would see and use it, but seeing almost the whole fandom (and across platforms!) use it has really blown my mind."

Yes, to their surprise, the Twibbon did not stay on X. "When I got sent the first TikTok about it, I thought that that was a bit funny and insane and then it just kept getting more crazy and spreading even further!" The count had reached 943 at the time this piece was published. Chris still cannot quite take the number in. "I really didn't expect it to take off as much as it did! 900 people doesn't sound like a real number to me and I can't really comprehend it."

The second surprise had nothing to do with the movie. "When I first posted the twibbon they were really excited about having something that showed their support and in a way [that] unites us as a fandom again. Like every fandom we sometimes have a lot of drama going on, so everyone came together for this was really special to see."

The frame was one of many things the fandom prepared

The thing about fandoms is that they will find their own ways to enjoy a piece of media. Chris generously pointed us to how their friends celebrated the movie's release.

Sara, for one, made a bingo template for fans to play along with while watching the movie. Ja posted an artwork of O'Neil's character close to the time when the movie premiered. Hailey went avant-garde by creating a nail set that is on-theme with the movie. One hilarious post was uploaded by Khyomi, a collaboration between her, Ja, and Leila, congratulating Melissa O'Neil with a distinctive congratulatory banner that says "Philippines is proud of youu!!!"

The Southeast Asian-style banner for Melissa O'Neil. Credit: @khyomiloveslucy

There is also Meg, who uploaded a fanbook compiling messages and fan works, which she then gifted to O'Neil at DragonCon. Lastly, Chris gave a special shoutout to Pat, who "basically acted as The Copycat Killer social media manager and found out a lot of information about the movie itself and posted the trailers for us."

The audience they made it for

Chris's reflection on the result of their campaign is not about reach. "The goal was to show her our love and support and I think we really managed to do that!" O'Neil herself later posted a video on TikTok expressing her disbelief and gratitude for all the love she received for the movie. 

As is tradition with previous fandoms, they celebrate how the fandom showed up for a public figure they admire with collages of Twibbons. While Pat made the photo collage, Court made a video version of it. Again, they are not showing off the reach of the campaign, but the community that has been built around O'Neil. 

A fandom's dedication is not something anyone, or any company, can fabricate. It is a result of people who share the same interest and find a home in each other. Melissa O'Neil might have been surprised by how her project, which barely caught the media's attention, gained so much support across social media. It is a thing of pure connection, and they never made the efforts alone.