Tom Bateman has been cast as the male lead in The Love Hypothesis, the upcoming Amazon MGM Studios film adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s best-selling romance novel.
The casting has caught attention for a surprising real-life link to the book’s fanfiction origins: Bateman is married to Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley, the original inspiration behind the female protagonist.
The book began as a Star Wars fanfiction titled Head Over Feet, which centred on the Reylo pairing—Ridley's Rey and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren. Published in 2018 on Archive of Our Own, the story was later reworked into a standalone romance. Hazelwood confirmed Adam Carlsen, the male lead Bateman will play, was named in homage to Adam Driver.
Nods to the book’s origins came fast after Bateman’s casting. Amazon MGM posted, “Hypothesis: Tom Bateman is the perfect Adam Carlsen,” while fans lit up X with commentary linking the real-life couple to their fictional counterparts. One post read, “Fanfiction version of Daisy Ridley’s space husband being her real-life husband.”
Bateman will star opposite Lili Reinhart, who plays Olive Smith, a PhD candidate who enters a fake dating scenario with Carlsen. The couple's chemistry mirrors that of Rey and Kylo’s fraught alliance in The Rise of Skywalker.
Bateman and Ridley met in 2017 during filming of Murder on the Orient Express. Their off-screen connection now circles back to a fandom that’s followed them for years—only this time, on a very different kind of screen.
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