How fake news about a Home Alone sequel went viral

It’s that time of the year where you can get cosy and watch your favourite Christmas films on the telly.

But if you've been scrolling through socials, you may have noticed some film posters popping up on your feed for some upcoming Christmas movie sequels which may seem just too good to be true.

Let's take a deep dive into some sequels which have ultimately, turned out to be fake news.

What is the 'Cabin Alone' movie?

Fake films have been doing the rounds for a while now. Last year a Facebook user shared a poster for 'Cabin Alone', a sequel featuring two of the original Home Alone stars Macaulay Culkin and Catherine O’Hara that claimed the film was "streaming on Disney+ in December 2024".

The image, which may have been created using AI or a photo-editing tool, fooled many users as it features the actors as they would appear now - 34 years after the original movie was released - while the supposed plot line about Kevin and his mum tackling the incompetent burglars at a remote cabin sounds entirely plausible.

The post quickly went viral after getting 143k+ likes on Facebook, along with 33k shares and 19k+ comments at the time. While many of the comments said this was great news and asked when exactly it was being released, there were also comments from others saying they couldn’t believe people were falling for this story.

The post gathered so much attention it ranked high on Google Trends last year as people hoped Cabin Alone was happening, but there's been no official news from Disney about this to date.

Fake news stories often come from joke or parody sites after they have been misunderstood and taken as fact, before being shared out of context. Those who didn’t believe the Cabin Alone story had probably taken a closer look at the creator’s Facebook page. The intro section states that the page is ‘100% satire and fake news’, while a quick look at the feed finds posters for other unlikely movie sequels, including one for another Christmas favourite, Elf 2. They may have also spotted that Macaulay’s name is spelt with a large 'C' on the poster.

Remember it's always best to fact-check news you spot online to see if it's been reported by official and reliable sources, such as the film directors and actors, who haven't verified this information.

Not sure if the news you’re seeing on social media is true or false? Can you always tell if the things you see online are real or fake? Learn how to get the other side of the story with our quizzes, videos and explainers.