Why A New Prime Video Movie Casting Has Star Wars Fans Spiraling

Casting for new movies and television shows has become a frequent spectacle on social media, especially in the era of so many franchises taking up so much oxygen in the room. Prime Video experienced this spotlight in a particularly strange way as their new romantic comedy, "The Love Hypothesis," ended up being a main character-level social media talking point after casting Tom Bateman as the male lead of that story. "Star Wars" fans instantly began spiraling, but not in their usual depressing way, as this obsession and discussion was a good deal more positive. Hollywood can be quirky, and this is the kind of pop culture story that needs a bit of explaining to illustrate what has all of these "Star Wars" fans talking after such a mundane casting announcement.

Tom Bateman will star opposite Lili Reinhart in "The Love Hypothesis," according to Deadline, and that's about the funniest casting choice that Amazon MGM Studios could have made here, because of "The Love Hypothesis's" unique journey to publication. On its face, this novel is standard fun romantic comedy fare; a biology PhD student named Olive Smith enters a fake relationship with the grumpy Dr. Adam Carlsen to determine how accurate their theories on love are when faced with the genuine article. It's strictly for science, you see! All that's great, but writer Ali Hazelwood reworked her "Star Wars" fanfiction into "The Love Hypothesis," and the fans know that from the jump. This created a scenario where multiple platforms are wondering if Tom Bateman, our prospective Adam Carlsen, knows that the book was based on his wife's "Star Wars" character?

"Star Wars" star Daisy Ridley is Tom Bateman's real-life wife, and his new movie is based on Rey and Kylo Ren fanfiction. The real world is just hysterical sometimes! For those who haven't been on the Internet since 2016, "Reylo" is an entire shipping community obsessed with pairing the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy heroine with her biggest antagonist throughout those films. Author Ali Hazelwood changed the names and some of the sequences in her fanfic that "The Love Hypothesis" comes from, (that used to be "Head Over Feet" over on multiple different parts of the Internet, and good luck finding that out here in the wild now!), but "Star Wars" fans and "The Love Hypothesis" readers are both aware of this fun fact. 

Adapting fanfiction is becoming less rare with every passing year, as production companies and other studios look for more avenues to develop intellectual property with an existing fanbase, because sometimes an idea can be repurposed pretty easily. The highest-profile example of this trend would have to be "50 Shades of Grey," which was adapted after E.L. James wrote some "Twilight" fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off, to absolutely staggering success. Now, the entire arena of fanfiction has increased in profile to the point that you can get a book deal off of Wattpad or Archive of Our Own (AO3 if you're nasty), if you play your cards right.

Director Claire Scanlon is handling "The Love Hypothesis," but as of publication, it's unclear if the "Set It Up" director has any idea what she just did to social media. If this was Prime Video's way of getting even more eyeballs on the project through one of the most unique stunt casting moments in recent memory, well done, because you got me. It's hard to imagine Bateman agreeing to this entire deal without being aware of the raunchy "Star Wars" fanfiction of it all, but maybe he's just seeing it on his timeline like the rest of us? Collider previously asked Daisy Ridley if she was aware that her work in "Star Wars" had inspired "The Love Hypothesis," and she seemed genuinely unaware that this Reylo wave had even occurred in publishing, so maybe the news of the shipping fervor didn't make it back to the dinner table at home?

Ridley immediately said, "I mean, honestly, for anyone to just write a book is so impressive, let alone a New York Times bestseller, let alone something inspired by something I was part of. That's very thrilling. So, thank you, if anyone's reading this." The Rey actress added, "Yeah, So thank you, whoever wrote 'The Love Hypothesis' and 'The Hurricane Wars.' Wow. F****** cool."

"The Love Hypothesis" was already a big deal among romance readers, but now the movie is going to have even more eyeballs on it thanks to this fun bit of casting. Both Tom Bateman and Lili Reinhart are more than capable of handling the chemistry on-screen with this romantic comedy, with some obvious bits for promotional layups. Scanlon knows how to pick her casts if this wasn't done on purpose, and Prime Video's been on an impressive streak of romcom resurgence the last few years with titles like "Picture This" and "The Idea of You," with that momentum looking to hold strong. "Star Wars" fans piquing an interest probably doesn't hurt matters very much, though don't go into this hoping for a Daisy Ridley cameo, you're probably going to be disappointed.

Fanfiction is an even bigger part of the Internet in the new social media environment brought into focus by thanks to things like TikTok, because if fans feel jilted by official releases (as they always have, by the way), viewers will fill in the gaps with their own attempts. The majority of these produced pieces probably won't end up as a medium budget Prime Video affair, but they could, and that's a weird little wrinkle of an otherwise dour world we find ourselves in. For one afternoon on the Internet in 2025, social media came together to tweet that one New Rockstars meme at each other for a couple of hours, and I'm thankful to the "Star Wars" and romance literature fandoms for letting us in on the joke for just a little while.