Is Adolescence based on the Southport Murders? Exploring the facts as the show gets criticized for being 'anti-white'

Stephen Graham and Owen Cooper's starrer Adolescence has been one of the biggest shows released this year, climbing the charts and breaking records in terms of viewership as the four-episode show continues to enthrall audiences.

As praise for Graham and Cooper continues to flow in, the film has also become a conversation starter about young teenage boys, how they are raised, and the infamous 'incel culture.' However, Adolescence has also found itself embroiled in controversy, with many, including Elon Musk, slamming the film for being 'anti-white.'

How did the anti-white controversy for Adolescence start?

The controversy started with Malaysian journalist Ian Miles Cheong, who made a post about the film’s origins and how it was inspired by a similar case that occurred in Southport, where a Black British boy stabbed a girl on a bus. He then claimed that Netflix had swapped the boy’s race to make it 'anti-white propaganda':

Netflix has a show called Adolescence that’s about a British knife killer who stabbed a girl to death on a bus and it’s based on real life cases such as the Southport murderer. So guess what. They race swapped the actual killer from a black man/migrant to a white boy and the story has it so he was radicalized online by the red pill movement.

The tweet then caught the attention of X CEO Elon Musk, who commented "wow" under the post, exacerbating discussions surrounding the film.

Is Adolescence actually based on the Southport murder?

The Southport killings involved Axel Rudakubana, a young Black British boy who killed three young girls attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop. The incident occurred on July 29, and trials and police proceedings have been ongoing since. The tragedy also caught the attention of Taylor Swift, who extended her sympathies to the victims' families.

Axel, who is 18 years old, went on a killing spree at the dance studio, stabbing and killing three girls, aged nine, seven, and six, while eight others were injured, and two adults were critically wounded. Prior to this, he had a criminal record at 13 for bringing a knife to school. Reports suggest that his violence stemmed from racial bullying he experienced at school, leading him to carry a knife on multiple occasions. Additionally, he reportedly consumed gruesome content online and became a troubled child.

Although one might notice resemblances between his story and that of Jamie Miller in Adolescence, the motivations behind their crimes differ significantly. Jamie was driven by male rage and was a victim of toxic masculinity and incel culture, unable to cope with a woman's rejection. In contrast, Axel’s killing spree was not motivated by hatred toward the children he killed.

Four months before this incident, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham announced that they were working on a true crime drama called Adolescence, with Deadline reporting the news on March 14. Filming for the show had already begun in July, a week before the Southport incident, as reported by Digital Spy. This makes it impossible for the case to have inspired the series.

What inspired the premise of Adolescence?

Speaking to Tudum, Stephen Graham opened up about the inspiration behind the show:

“There was an incident where a young boy [allegedly] stabbed a girl. It shocked me. I was thinking, ‘What’s going on? What’s happening in society where a boy stabs a girl to death? What’s the inciting incident here?’ And then it happened again, and it happened again, and it happened again. I really just wanted to shine a light on it, and ask, ‘Why is this happening today? What’s going on? How have we come to this?’"

Graham also spoke to the BBC about how multiple incidents involving the killings of young girls at the hands of young boys inspired him to create the series:

"I just thought, what's going on in society where this kind of thing is becoming a regular occurrence? I just couldn't fathom it. So I wanted to really have a look and try and shine a light on this particular thing."

How did Adolescence creator Jack Thorne respond to this controversy?

Thorne spoke to News Agents about the controversies and claims surrounding the film, emphasizing that it was not inspired by any particular incident but rather by a series of unfortunate events occurring worldwide as a result of male rage:

"They’ve claimed that Stephen and I based it on a story, and another story, so we race-swapped because we were basing it on here and it ended up there, and everything else. Nothing is further from the truth."

He then adds how no instance in the show was inspired by a real-life event:

"I have told a lot of real life stories in my time, and I know the harm that can come when you take elements of a real life story and put it on screen and the people aren’t expecting it. There is no part of this that's based on a true story, not one single part."

Thorne also addressed the racial aspect of the claims, stating that race was irrelevant to the story and that the focus was on how toxic masculinity has become a problem for the younger generation:

"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,"

Adolescence is available to stream on Netflix