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Several social media users across different platforms shared a trailer on Monday, claiming that Netflix released a documentary titled Imran Khan: The Game Changer. However, no such trailer or documentary was released by the streaming giant.

How it started

On May 26, a user on X (formerly Twitter), and presumably a supporter of Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) based on his profile picture and past posts, shared a trailer attributed to Netflix and announced that it released a documentary about Khan, called Imran Khan: The Game Changer.

The caption of the post read: “Netflix has released a documentary on Imran titled Imran Khan The Game Changer. Keep retweeting.”

The post received 149,300 views and was shared 8,900 times.

The same video was shared by several other PTI supporters on X with the same caption. The posts collectively garnered more than 80,000 views. The trailer, with the same caption, could also be found on Facebook.

The fact-checking process

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality, significant public interest in Imran, especially as he remains away from the public eye, and the attribution of an international streaming giant producing a documentary on him without any announcements or media reports.

Searching for the documentary on Netflix yielded no results, despite users claiming it had been released. It was also not found on its YouTube channel, which is updated with the latest trailer releases, date announcements, and interviews.

A search of national and international media produced no results of articles on the documentary, or anything of the sort being in the works.

However, on April 6, 2024, during a livestream on X with PTI’s head of social media, Jibran Ilyas, former minister for overseas Pakistanis Zulfiqar Bukhari stated that he would speak with Ilyas and others to provide footage to Netflix, expressing hope that a good series would be made on the ongoing situation in the country.

Since then, no further updates or developments were reported. The PTI did not share any such trailer on its official social media platforms.

Moreover, the text at the beginning of the trailer contains a spelling error, as the line reads, “A mini series on the struggle of a lagend,” which is unlikely to appear in an official Netflix trailer.

The other text that appears later on the screen is not linear and flashes across different points of the frame.

The trailer, which is comprised of clips from PTI protests, Imran addressing the crowd, Ali Muhammad Khan’s speech on the night when Khan was ousted via a no-confidence vote, and Imran’s other appearances during his premiership, ends abruptly with a title reading, Imran Khan: The Game Changer, and does not include a release date — a detail usually found at the end of every Netflix trailer.

Verdict: Fake

The Netflix trailer of a documentary on Imran Khan’s political journey is false. No such documentary or its trailer could be found on the streaming platform or its YouTube channel.

This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ and UNDP.