On Dec. 31, 2023, Facebook account @YODA BBY ABY posted a claim that the film franchise "The NeverEnding Story" was coming out with a fourth sequel. "The NeverEnding Story" is a three-part series, the first of which was released in 1984. It's based on a 1979 fantasy novel by German author Michael Ende titled "The Neverending Story." The caption for the Facebook post read:
NEVERENDING STORY!!!!
Get ready for an epic journey beyond imagination in "The Neverending Story." Join Bastian, all grown up, as he battles against forgotten memories that hold the fate of Fantasia. Unleash the magic this August 2024 – a cinematic adventure where the past must be remembered to save the future.
The post gained more than 30,000 reactions and 7,700 comments, at the time of this writing. Response to the post was mixed, with some expressing excitement and others skepticism. "I hope they don’t mess it up," one user wrote.
Other sites, including For Reading Addicts and RPF, also repeated the rumor. Unfortunately (for diehard fans of this 80s fantasy classic, at least), this poster was AI-generated and there is no such sequel in production.
The Facebook account that originally shared the fake poster, @YODA BBY ABY, has made dozens of similarly fake movie posters. The account appears to be connected with another site called screenslant.com. The page's bio has a disclaimer as follows:
I'm just here to eat frogs, lift rocks and be satirical. The page is 100% satire and fake news. ❤️
Additionally, the claim on the "For Reading Addicts" website included an image implying that the film would be produced by Disney, but the original series was a Warner Bros. production. If the claim for a sequel had any basis in reality, it would have been announced by Warner Bros. themselves.
We've previously debunked other such rumors related to fake movie posters, such as this one claiming to be an official poster for a "Speed 3" film starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.