Fan fiction has done it again. The Love Hypothesis, which originated as Reylo fan fiction, earned a stronger Rotten Tomatoes score than the last Star Wars movie to feature Rey and Kylo, 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker.
On Rotten Tomatoes, The Love Hypothesis is fresh at 81%, based on 26 reviews. The audience score is also at 81%, marking a rare moment on the review aggregator website where critics and audiences are in agreement on a movie. The 81% critics’ score is higher than the one for The Rise of Skywalker, which sits at 51%. However, its audience score is just slightly lower, as the final Skywalker Saga movie has a (somewhat surprising) 86% rating.
The Love Hypothesis is a romantic comedy film based on the 2021 romance novel of the same name by Ali Hazelwood, which in turn was originally published online in 2018 as Head Over Feet, a Star Wars fan fiction work about the “Reylo” ship between Rey and Kylo Ren.
The reimagined story drops all Star Wars connections and is instead a STEM fake dating romance. It follows Olive, a brilliant Ph.D. candidate focused on her future in academia. But when she realizes her best friend Ahn has fallen for her crush Jeremy, Olive impulsively kisses intimidating professor Adam Carlsen to prove she’s moved on.
This leads to a fake dating scenario with rules, boundaries, and a mutually beneficial agreement. When their arrangement begins to blur the lines between performance and reality, Olive is forced to test her most daunting hypothesis yet: that love might actually be worth the risk.
Tom Bateman and Lili Reinhart co-lead the movie, with Rachel Marsh, Jaboukie Young-White, Nicholas Duvernay, and Arty Froushan also starring. The adaptation comes from Claire Scanlon, with a script by Sarah Rothschild.
The Love Hypothesis is now streaming on Prime Video.
This is a developing story…
- Release Date
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September 23, 2026
- Director
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Claire Scanlon
- Writers
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Sarah Rothschild
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Lili Reinhart
Olive Smith
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Tom Bateman
Dr. Adam Carlsen
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Jaboukie Young-White
Malcolm Browne
