Leave the World Behind director Sam Esmail has confirmed Barack Obama’s involvement as a producer, shutting down fan conspiracy theories on social media.
Starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, and Ethan Hawke, Leave the World Behind is a Netflix movie based on the 2020 novel of the same name.
The movie’s official synopsis reads: “A family vacation on Long Island is interrupted by two strangers bearing news of a blackout. As the threat grows, both families must decide how best to survive the potential crisis, all while grappling with their own place in this collapsing world.”
With Leave the World Behind now available to stream, Sam Esmail has weighed in on fan conspiracy theories surrounding Barack Obama’s involvement.
Obama involvement rules out Leave the World Behind conspiracy
According to the creators of new Netflix movie Leave the World Behind, Barack Obama’s involvement as a producer was mostly script-focused, ruling out viewer claims of a wider conspiracy theory.
Barrack & Michelle Obama made a film called “Leave the World Behind” on Netflix that portrays the Apocalypse. It shows the 3 stages needed in order to cause a Civil War to destabilize the Country!! We’re already pass 1. This is getting scary & absurd! pic.twitter.com/lYmNXDrhHb
— WonnaWoo👑 (@worryboutwonna) December 10, 2023
Speaking to Collider about the film’s theories, director Sam Esmail said: “I think the silly thing about the whole thing is President Obama really came on a couple of months before we started shooting, so the script had basically been written and done.
“He obviously gave notes on the script, but the bones of the story and the sequences were already written. I would just say they’re pretty wrong in terms of his signaling. It had nothing to do with that.”
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Esmail went on to explain: “Because President Obama is such a movie lover, he really focused his notes on trying to cinematically portray what was in the book in a really interesting way. The book was on his reading list, it’s one of his favorites, and he really wanted to do justice by the book and this theme about mistrust and this being a cautionary tale about what could happen if we don’t have that community or bond that holds us together.
“So he really gave notes with regards to character, empathy, and also the disaster elements. It was really across the board. And again, it was all in pursuit of making it into a good movie. That was his main focus.”
Fan theories about the Obama’s involvement have spread far and wide following the news that Barack and Michelle were involved in Leave the World Behind.
“Leave The World Behind could be predictive programming… or the Director is super smart and capitalizing off of the major wave of conspiracists. Totally possible that Obama’s input was incredibly small and was done with the intention of hyping it up as ‘predictive programming,’” one viewer posted on X/Twitter.
“The fact that Leave the World Behind was produced by Barack and Michael Obama, speaks volumes,” added another.
Leave the World Behind is available to stream on Netflix now. You can read more about the movie below:
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- Leave the World Behind’s Friends plot hole
- What is predictive programming?
- Julia Roberts “embarrassed” by scene
- Where was Leave the World Behind filmed? All filming locations