Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman on a bench in The Love Hypothesis Image via Prime Video By Carly Lane Published Sep 22, 2026, 12:00 AM EDT Carly Lane is an Atlanta-based writer and critic who has been with Collider in some form or fashion since 2021. She considers herself a television nerd, diehard romance/sci-fi/fantasy reader, and nascent horror lover. Her fondness of books is only eclipsed by the towering TBR that her shelves can't possibly contain. She is the author of A REGENCY GUIDE TO MODERN LIFE: 1800s ADVICE ON 21ST CENTURY LOVE, FRIENDS, FUN AND MORE , published through DK Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House) and currently available wherever books are sold. Sign in to your Collider account Add Us Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Listen Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap Within the larger rom-com renaissance that's happening right now, Prime Video's The Love Hypothesis is a pretty unique case. For starters, it's adapted from the New York Times bestselling romance novel by Ali Hazelwood , which actually started out as a piece of Reylo (Rey/Kylo Ren) Star Wars alternate universe fanfic . There's even a bit of irony wrapped up in the fact that Tom Bateman — who is married to Star Wars' Rey herself, Daisy Ridley — plays the character who was originally inspired by Adam Driver 's Sith Lord.
If you know what came before Prime Video's adaptation, you'll be able to spot all the ways screenwriter Sarah Rothschild and director Claire Scanlon lovingly wink at its origins — chief among them that Bateman is almost exclusively clad in head-to-toe black. But even if you have no idea how The Love Hypothesis began, you'll still be able to enjoy it for what it's evolved into: a thoroughly delightful rom-com led by a charming Lili Reinhart and a deceptively complex Bateman. While the film's third act does stumble in tying up every possible loose end, it doesn't detract from the joy of watching two people fumble their way through a fake-dating plot and all the very real feelings it stirs up in the process.
PhD student Olive Smith (Reinhart) has finally achieved her long-held dream of getting into Stanford. After losing her mother to pancreatic cancer, those personal stakes have only made her more driven to research new means of detecting the disease — now, she just needs to secure the necessary funding. Amidst the chaos of trying to fit in at a new school, Olive quickly strikes up a meaningful friendship with fellow student Ahn ( Fallout 's Rachel Marsh ), while also initially nursing a crush on another peer, Jeremy ( Nicholas Duvernay ). Yet when she notices that Ahn is waffling over whether to take her friendship with Jeremy to the next level, Olive realizes she'll need to convince her BFF that she doesn't have any romantic feelings for him anymore. Enter: a boyfriend whom she invents right on the spot. But one thing leads to another after a late night working in the lab, and Olive spontaneously decides to lock lips with the professor everyone on campus refers to as "Dr. Evil."
Dr. Adam Carlsen (Bateman) has achieved a reputation at Stanford for being harsh and overly critical towards students. He's definitely surprised by Olive's overture at first, but the next day of classes brings a fresh perspective — and with it, Adam's consent to play Olive's boyfriend for as long as it takes for Ahn and Jeremy to cou…