One of the biggest talking points about the world-building within Alex Garland‘s 2024 thriller “Civil War” has come to a head again in the wake of the 2026 U.S. midterm elections.
Set in a near-future United States, the film sees the country split into four groups by state, with the ‘Western Forces’ (namely California and Texas) teaming up to take down a tyrannical president (Nick Offerman) amid the civil war within the country.
However, rather than a division along party lines (ie. red Republicans vs. blue Democrats), the film was intentionally vague about what values each party represented to avoid getting caught up in culture war arguments.
Nevertheless, some deemed the alliance of California and Texas unbelievable, as they are Democratic and Republican strongholds, respectively. Then came the ‘blue tsunami’ yesterday during the mid-term elections, which saw the Democrats winning the Texas governor’s mansion and a U.S. Senate seat for the first time in decades. As a result, people are giving the film another look and pointing out how Garland foresaw this.
One X user says: “You all owe Alex Garland an apology”, with that tweet being shared around. Bluesky is filled with a number of people publicly apologising “for making fun of his choice to team California and Texas together”. Even trade outlets like THR are reporting the renewed interest, while a Reddit thread is blowing up about it.
Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Sonoya Mizuno starred in the film that follows a group of journalists covering the final days of a second civil war.
Garland most recently shot the film adaptation of the Game of the Year winner “Elden Ring”, with that movie expected out in early 2028.
