Jack Thorne, the co-creator of Netflix series Adolescence, is speaking out after far-right influencers and Elon Musk promoted a conspiracy theory about the series.
In four parts, the series focuses on 13-year-old Jamie Miller, played by Owen Cooper, who is accused of the grisly murder of a teen girl.
The groundbreaking show has sparked discussions with its bracing depiction of how the online "manosphere," incel and "red pill" culture, and right-wing political discourse indoctrinate young boys and men into aggression towards both each other and women.
So, naturally, conservatives hate it and see it as an attack on masculinity—and have created a conspiracy theory that it is also "anti-white."
Musk cronies like Russia-funded far-right propagandist Ian Miles Cheong claim that the show is based on the "real-life" case of the Southport murders in the UK, in which a Black teenager brutally murdered three girls in the summer of 2024.
But the show was created and announced months before those murders ever occurred, not that any of Musk and Cheong's fanboys will care, of course.
Thorne addressed the rumors in an interview with the the show The News Agents, in which he called the conspiracy theory "ridiculous."
@thenewsagents “It is absurd to that say knife crime is only committed by black boys.” #adolescence #netflix #jackthorne
He told the host:
"There is no part of this that's based on a true story, not one single part.”
He went on to say:
"It's absurd to say that [knife crime] is only committed by Black boys. It’s absurd. It's not true. And history shows a lot of cases of kids from all races committing these crimes."
"We're not making a point about race with this. We are making a point about masculinity. We’re trying to get inside a problem. We’re not saying this is one thing or another, we’re saying that this is about boys."
None of this has stopped Elon Musk from amplifying Cheong's lies, despite the fact that Musk's own Grok AI assistant posted on X to say that Cheong's claims about Adolescence are, in fact, "false."
Of course none of this ultimately matters—Cheong, Musk and everyone like them know very well that their audience will not bother to do any due diligence and will swallow their propaganda whole. That horse is out of the barn.
But should they actually decide to look into it, they will certainly find plenty of pushback from X users.
In any case, whatever Cheong and Musk are trying to do, it isn't working—Adolescence has broken viewership records at Netflix.
@jaketapoer/Bluesky
@BillAckman/Twitter