The Love Hypothesis memes explained: Why Tom Bateman's casting is so funny

18 July 2025, 09:05 | Updated: 18 July 2025, 11:03

By Katie Louise Smith

Tom Bateman is set to play Dr. Adam Carlsen in The Love Hypothesis, an adaptation of a Star Wars fanfic written about wife Daisy Ridley's character Rey.

Did anyone have Daisy Ridley's husband Tom Bateman being cast in The Love Hypothesis, an adaptation of a romantic fanfic originally written about Daisy and Adam Driver's Star Wars characters, on their 2025 bingo card? Me neither.

British actor Tom is set to star opposite former Riverdale star Lili Reinhart in the film adaptation of Ali Hazelwood's novel, and social media is absolutely losing it over his (perfect!) casting.

To understand why, you must understand the fanfic origins of The Love Hypothesis. The lore is deep, the lore is layered, and we're here to explain everything.

Here's your deep dive on The Love Hypothesis, the Reylo fanfic it was adapted from and all the hilarious reactions to Tom's casting.

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Ok first of all, what and who is Reylo?

Reylo is a popular Star Wars ship consisting of Rey and Kylo Ren (a.k.a. Ben Solo), who were played by Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver in the films.

Throughout the Star Wars sequel trilogy (The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker), a subsection of fans began 'shipping' the two adversaries because of their on-screen chemistry.

As a result, thousands and thousands of fanfics (there's literally almost 30,000 on one website alone) were written and published online with like-minded fans wanting to see those characters through a romantic lens.

Ali Hazelwood's Head Over Heels (the original fanfic that The Love Hypothesis is based on) is one of them.

Was 'The Love Hypothesis' originally a Reylo fanfic?

Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis is actually an adaptation of her fanfic Head Over Heels, which was originally published in 2018 under the username Ever-so-reylo.

Head Over Heels is a Reylo AU fanfic (Alternate Universe, for those non-fanfic readers) that takes the characters of Rey, Ben and a handful of other familiar Star Wars names and places them into a modern day setting.

The original fanfic sees Rey, a grad student, and Ben, a doctor working at a university, embark on a fake relationship that eventually turns real.

In order to publish the book, Ali reworked the story, removed almost all of the Star Wars references and changed the character names. Now, The Love Hypothesis stands alone as a contemporary romance novel.

While there are Reylo fans who remember its origins, most readers have no idea that the story originally stems from an AU fanfic. On Reddit, one reader wrote: "If I hadn’t known it was a reworked fanfic, I never would have drawn the connection."

The novel has absolutely nothing to do with the Star Wars universe, but the characters on the cover do resemble Adam Driver's Ben/Kylo and Daisy Ridley's Rey.

So, why is Tom Bateman being cast in the film adaptation such a big deal?

Tom Bateman is set to star opposite Lili Reinhart in the film adaptation of the book and they'll be bringing Dr. Adam Carlsen and Olive Smith to life.

Tom Bateman also happens to be Daisy Ridley's husband. Daisy, of course, played Rey in Star Wars... are you making the connection now?

Basically, people are absolutely gagged and gooped that Tom has been cast in a project that was originally created and inspired by Daisy's character and the on-screen chemistry that Rey and Ben (Adam Driver) shared.

Ever since Tom's casting was announced, hilarious reactions have been flooding social media.

Referencing the fact that 50 Shades of Grey was originally a piece of Twilight fanfiction, one user joked: "This is the funniest thing that has ever happened in any fandom ever from the beginning of time. This is like if Robert Pattinsons girlfriend got cast as Anastasia Steele."

Another user wrote: "He doesn’t really fit the description but this is genuinely the second funniest thing they could’ve done and they did it lmaoooo"

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