Ali Hazelwood hive, rise. The film adaptation of one of Hazelwood’s novel The Love Hypothesis (which happens to be one of BookTok’s favorite science-y romances), is going full-speed ahead, with the announcement of two major names attached to play the leading love interests in the story. But that’s not the only reason fans are freaking out — if you’ve heard chatter about The Love Hypothesis movie’s Reylo fanfic lore, but are a little lost on what that even means, you’ve come to the right place.
Let’s take it back a sec: The Love Hypothesis is Hazelwood’s debut novel, published in 2021. It follows Olive, a PhD student who starts fake-dating Adam, a young professor — but the gag is, the two hate each other. As one would expect, the two end up falling for each other against the backdrop of academia and STEM in a very cute and steamy rom-com.
But! The book *originally* started out as a work of fan fiction (or fanfic) which Hazelwood published under the name Head Over Feet in 2018. And the couple at the center of that fic? Rey and Kylo Ren from the Star Wars sequel trilogy — better known as their ship name, “Reylo.” In the movies, Daisy Ridley plays Rey, and Adam Driver plays Kylo Ren (and yes, many fans take Adam’s character name as an homage to Driver).
So far, there’s nothing super out of the ordinary about this, right? Plenty of authors get their start by writing fanfic before hitting it big in the mainstream. However, it’s the movie adaptation of the novel that’s really blowing fans’ minds — namely, the recent casting news of the film’s male lead. On July 17, Tom Bateman was announced as the actor playing Adam. Bateman is known for his roles in Behind Her Eyes and Death on the Nile, but most relevant, he’s the real-life husband of Ridley. Yes, that Ridley.
Fans instantly made the connection: Bateman is playing the love interest of a character inspired by a role played by his wife. It may sound convoluted, but in the fanfic world, this is exactly the kind of twisty plot fans live for.
imagine someone made a fanfiction about your WIFE and her COSTAR’s chemistry from a trilogy they starred in and that fanfic is PUBLISHED into a book and they cast YOU as the male lead
— falka (@mvdpire) July 17, 2025
This fact is very likely not lost on Ridley and Bateman. In 2023, Ridley learned about The Love Hypothesis‘s Reylo fanfic roots (along with its connection to another book, The Hurricane Wars) in an interview with Collider. “Thank you, whoever wrote The Love Hypothesis and The Hurricane Wars,” she said in the interview. “Wow. F*cking cool.” Anyone else imagining Ridley and Bateman having a laugh over all this backstory — or many even fangirling over it?
Even with Star Wars fandom lore aside, The Love Hypothesis is on track to be one of the most highly anticipated book-to-movie adaptations coming in the near future. In addition to Bateman, actress Lili Reinhart has also been announced to star as female lead Olive, which Reinhart celebrated with a series of iconic TikToks.
Further, Set It Up director Claire Scanlon is set to direct, and writer of Netflix’s The Sleepover Sarah Rothschild wrote the script — so basically, fans are pretty sure they have a hit on their hands.
“Honestly, I still can’t believe this is happening? [Producer] Elizabeth Cantillon, Claire Scanlon, and Lili Reinhart have all created, produced, or starred in works that I’m absolutely feral about, and I am beyond honored that they’re choosing to bring their talent to this project,” Hazelwood said in a statement on July 16. “Books and films are very different media, and I have complete trust in this brilliant team. I cannot wait to see the final product they’ll come up with. I hope they have as much fun filming as I had while writing the book.”