Let’s get this out of the way quickly: Jon Bernthal is absolutely not playing Aaron Hernandez in a limited series for Netflix.
People have once again fallen for completely fake entertainment news on Twitter dot com. You’d think that the time a film Twitter news parody account said that Succession’s Jeremy Strong was cast as Stuart Little would get people to be a little more careful about what they believe, but it did not.
Earlier this week, the DiscussingFilm parody account DisbussingFilm tweeted, “Following the success of ‘DAHMER’, Netflix is producing an Aaron Hernandez limited series with Jon Bernthal in the leading role.” The tweet included a photo of Bernthal alongside a photo of Hernandez, which is emblematic of the DiscussingFilm format.
Netflix’s DAHMER is one of the streamer’s most popular series of all time, but it has received backlash for making profit out of tragedy rather than respecting the victims, which has spurred conversation over what true crime stories are appropriate for adaptation. Hernandez played football for the New England Patriots for three seasons. His career ended after his arrest for the murder of his friend Odin Lloyd in 2013. He was found guilty in 2015. Hernandez died by suicide in prison in 2017.
Here’s the tweet:
Following the success of ‘DAHMER’, Netflix is producing an Aaron Hernandez limited series with Jon Bernthal in the leading role.
(Source: Netflix) pic.twitter.com/gZZAdJhxDq
— DisbussingFilm (@DisbussingFilm) October 25, 2022
The tweet had many people fooled: so much so that fake news went viral, and Jon Bernthal became a trending topic on Twitter, according to The Spun.