The origin is murky. Some say it started on a private Discord server in 2021, where a user edited Lockhart’s photo with pixel-sorting effects and a radiation-green hue. Others trace it to an obscure Tumblr edit titled “lexxxi_zilla_avi.png.” Whatever the source, the avatar spread — first as a meme among B-movie horror fans, then into gaming forums, and eventually into the fringes of VRChat and Twitch.

Most significantly, the film inspired a micro-trend on TikTok called the "#AVIcore challenge," where users degrade their high-quality videos using 2000s-era compression filters to mimic DarkZilla's style.