Beyond manual Photoshop alterations, a technical quirk accelerated the rumor across video platforms. Short-form video interfaces rely on vertical 9:16 aspect ratios. Content re-uploaders routinely crop widescreen cinematic footage (often shot in 2.39:1 anamorphic format) to fill vertical phone screens.
When automated bots or casual editors converted widescreen promo clips of Howard running through the Biosyn facility, many failed to maintain the correct pixel aspect ratio. Instead of cropping the edges, their software squeezed the horizontal axis by roughly 15%, 20%. This horizontal compression instantly creates an optical illusion: actors appear shorter and noticeably broader. Viewers mistook basic software scaling errors for deliberate casting choices or unedited production footage.
