Sylvester Stallone said his 'Q' hat and 'storm' reference were 'unequivocally' about a yacht after QAnon supporters flocked to his Instagram post
- Sylvester Stallone appeared to respond to claims that his Instagram post referenced QAnon.
- QAnon fans celebrated Stallone after he posted a hat with a "Q" and a caption about "the Storm."
Sylvester Stallone clarified that an Instagram showing the actor in a "Q" hat — with a caption that included part of a phrase commonly used by QAnon adherents — was "unequivocally" a reference to the boat he was on and "NOT anything else" after commenters questioned whether he supported the baseless far-right conspiracy theory.
The 75-year-old "Rocky" actor shared the post on Instagram on Thursday. He tweeted a link to the Instagram picture and simply wrote, "Heading into the Storm..."
As of Tuesday, the post's caption reads, "Heading into the Storm….As IN THUNDERSTORM!!! We are in a jet for god sake flying through the rain!" Newsweek and Uproxx previously reported that Stallone's original caption just said, "Heading into the Storm..."
The post has racked up over 220,000 likes and almost 4,000 comments — and, it attracted a large number of QAnon supporters.
In the lore of QAnon — a web of baseless conspiracy theories that grew out of the false belief that former President Donald Trump was battling against a cabal of human traffickers — "the storm" refers to the false belief that there will come a day when enemies of Trump are arrested and killed in mass executions.
Numerous people commented "WWG1WGA," another QAnon slogan that means "where we go one, we go all" in the comment section of Stallone's post, amassing hundreds of likes on their messages.
Stallone wrote in a subsequent Instagram on Sunday that the Q on the hat was "unequivocally" an abbreviation for the Quantum of Solace, "the name of the boat I was on, NOT anything else." The Quantum of Solace is a luxury yacht built in 2012, according to the yacht website Luxury Yachting Worldwide. That Instagram post has accumulated over 150,000 likes and 2,000 comments.
He posted a similar message on Twitter, where he has 2.9 million followers, but wrote "Quantum of Silence" instead of Solace.
Insider was unable to obtain any images of the yacht.
Stallone has not appeared to have made a reference to QAnon before, and he did not endorse Trump in either the 2016 or 2020 elections, the Hill reported. In April, he denied in an Instagram post that he was a member of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after Page Six reported that the star enrolled in the club.
It's not the first time QAnon supporters have flocked to a celebrity who appeared to unknowingly champion one of their slogans.
In September, Justin Bieber said "the best is yet to come" as part of his 2021 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech, and the comment circulated around far-right pages online. The phrase is popular among Trump fans and QAnon followers, with the former president saying it in at least three public appearances, as Insider previously reported.
A representative for Stallone did not respond to a request for comment.