The film centers the narrative of the fictional horror character and internet phenomenon Slender Man, as told through a found footage compilation of existing YouTube videos.

[13] The majority of We're All Going to the World's Fair consists of original footage, with the exception of some online videos posted by content creators previously unrelated to the film.

[14] Starring Justice Smith and Jack Haven,[b] I Saw the TV Glow follows two teenage outcasts who bond over their shared love for a paranormal television series, only for them to lose touch with reality upon the show's cancellation.

[7] In January 2023, The Film Stage announced that Schoenbrun was set to direct an adaptation of Imogen Binnie's 2013 novel Nevada, which is widely considered a classic of transgender literature.

According to Schoenbrun, the film will follow a queer director who, while shooting a new installment of a popular horror franchise, becomes obsessed with the process of casting the movie's "final girl" character.

[4] Schoenbrun is also currently working on a trilogy of novels called Public Access Afterworld, which will be published by Penguin Random House's imprint Hogarth Books.

According to Schoenbrun, Public Access Afterworld will serve as the conclusion to a thematically-linked trilogy of works that includes We're All Going to the World's Fair and I Saw the TV Glow.

[25] They have frequently described I Saw the TV Glow as a film about the "egg crack", a term for the moment in a trans person's life when they realize their identity does not correspond to their assigned gender.

[26][27][28] Additionally, Schoenbrun has described the presence of screens, which are frequently featured in their work, as "a metaphor for the ways in which we don't experience ourselves when we're going through dysphoria and coming to terms with transness".