Do you love the fake dating trope? If so, you’ve probably already read “The Love Hypothesis” by Ali Hazelwood. It’s almost time to watch the movie on Prime Video.
If you haven’t read the book yet, you may want to. There’s some exciting news about the novel for those who love movie tie-in covers, and you may be surprised that this started off as fanfiction linked to a universe that has nothing to do with romance!
When and Where to Watch ‘The Love Hypothesis’
Amazon MGM StudiosThere is only one place to watch the new movie, starring Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman. It’s only on Prime Video, and there are no plans for it to head to theaters.
Amazon drops its releases at around 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT on the day of release. As it’s officially set to come out on Sept. 23, 2026, that’s the time you’ll need to stay up to if you want to watch it right away. Of course, it’ll be there when you wake up, and it’s going to make for an excellent watch for your rom-com movie weekend.
What to Expect in ‘The Love Hypothesis’
This is the perfect release for fake dating fans. The rom-com follows a professor and a student as they enter a fake relationship to put their theories about love to the test — just as the title of the movie would suggest!
It all starts with Olive attempting to convince her friend Anh that her dating life is going well. Of course, Anh doesn’t believe that, and it leads to Olive needing to find someone who she can pretend to date to get her friend off her back. What she really wants is to find the cure for pancreatic cancer, as that’s the disease her mother died from.
So, enter Dr. Adam Carlsen, a young professor who finds out that his research funds have been frozen by the university because they are sure that he is looking at other universities. Adam needs to make the science department believe that he wants to stay at Stanford, and the best way to do that is to convince the department heads that he has a girlfriend keeping him in the area.
What happens as the two start to have feelings for each other? Will it push them to try a real relationship, or will their real lives catch up to them?
‘The Love Hypothesis’ Gets a Movie Tie-In Book Cover
Amazon MGM StudiosFans of the book may be excited to hear that there is a new cover to get. It’s the movie tie-in cover that was released on Sept. 8, 2026. This doesn’t take away from the non-movie tie-in, which is still available to purchase.
What many may not realize is that “The Love Hypothesis” was originally “Star Wars” fanfiction. Like so many other stories, Hazelwood decided to develop the plot through her work “Head Over Feet,” which shipped Rey and Kylo Ren. The main characters were then renamed Olive and Adam, with all of the “Star Wars” references cut from the story. Unlike a few other stories that started out as fanfiction, it’s hard to tell that this one did.
However, fun fact: the character Adam was named because Adam Driver played Kylo Ren. The characters on the original cover were also designed after Driver and Daisy Ridley.
