The Love Hypothesis Trailer Goes All In On The Fake Dating Trope, But It's Ok, Guys, It's Science

2026 has been a great year for book-to-screen adaptations, and the year's not over. Among the more anticipated titles set to arrive on the 2026 movie schedule is the film adaptation of Ali Hazelwood's mega-popular romance book, The Love Hypothesis. Those with a Prime Video subscription will be able to watch it beginning September 23. With less than a month to wait, we now have a proper trailer for the movie!

Move over hockey romances (don't leave, please, just make some room, thanks!) because school's in session for this love story. I love a good fake-dating story, especially when both characters have reason to make it work, and all the right kinds of chemistry for love to flourish.

Per PolygonThe Love Hypothesis started out as Star Wars fanfic, which was written by Ali Hazelwood under the pen name "Ever-So-Reylo." As you might be able to surmise from the non de plume, the fanfic centered on Star Wars characters Rey and Kylo Ren.

As I'm sure you can tell from the trailer, The Love Hypothesis is not about Star Wars characters (it just started out that way). The story uses the fake-dating trope, and is centered on PhD student Olive and professor Dr. Adam Carlsen. Though their story starts out as a fake relationship things begin to get complicated, as fake relationships often do in these stories.

The book arrived in 2021 and currently holds a 4.09 rating (out of 5) on Good Reads. That number is made even more impressive when we factor in that the novel has over 2 million ratings. Prime Video's adaptation of The Love Hypothesis is directed by Claire Scanion, and stars Lili Reinhart as Olive, and Tom Bateman as Adam Carlsen. Rachel Marsh plays Olive's best friend Ann, while Nicholas Duvernay plays Jeremy, the guy Ahn falls for.

Based on the trailer, The Love Hypothesis looks like a must-watch for me. I'm also digging the use of the periodic table for the marketing. We saw a bit of it in the trailer, and there's even more of it in the poster. Check it out:

The Love Hypothesis poster showing Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman smiling at each other on a bench — (Image credit: Prime Video)

As mentioned, The Love Hypothesis will be streaming on Prime Video, beginning September 23.

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Kelly put her life-long love of movies, TV and books to greater use when she joined CinemaBlend as a freelance TV news writer in 2006, and went on to serve as the site’s TV Editor before joining the staff full-time in 2011 and moving over to other roles at the site. At present, she’s an Assistant Managing Editor who spends much of her time brainstorming and editing features, analyzing site data, working with writers and editors on content planning and the workflow, and obsessing over the best movies and TV shows. She graduated from SUNY Cortland with BA in Communication Studies and a minor in Cinema Studies. When she isn't working, she's probably thinking about work, or reading (or listening to a book), and making sure her cats are living their absolute best feline lives.