The Love Hypothesis has landed on Prime Video, and already it’s receiving complaints from fans of the book. But star Lili Reinhart has defended the changes made to the source material while explaining how she advocated for certain moments to be included. Written by Ali Hazelwood, the original book was published online in 2018 as Head Over Feet, a Star Wars fanfiction about a romance between Rey and Kylo Ren. Hazelwood later reworked the story, with the pair becoming Olive Smith and Adam Carlsen for the 2021 novel The Love Hypothesis. It quickly became a huge BookTok sensation and an instant New York Times bestseller. As such, it should come as no surprise that the film adaptation – which dropped on Prime Video on Wednesday, September 23 – is under intense scrutiny from its very devoted fandom. Already, a few narrative decisions have raised some eyebrows (to put it lightly), including the decision to cut Holden. One Redditor said they felt it was “sped up” and that it should’ve been a TV show rather than a movie. Another wrote, “I WAS SO ANGRY… the movie as a movie is good but not as a book adaptation… they removed Holden… they changed the friendship and relationship dynamics between most characters, especially Tom and Adam… they CHANGED THE WHOLE ENDING.” “100% COMPLETELY FRUSTRATED ME!!!! They took out every important f**king scene – the essence of Adam and Olive!! It’s not even The Love Hypothesis anymore – just the hypothesis atp,” added a third. These are just a few examples of the comments flying around right now. It’s worth noting that not everyone hates the film. One wrote, “GUYS IT WAS SO GOOD! It was the perfect mix of science, love and comedy! I hope they adapt more Ali Hazelwood books because we need STEM-related romcoms!” And it turns out Olive star Lili Reinhart was very aware that book fans wouldn’t necessarily be happy with every change – and she actually fought to keep some of the moments she knew readers cared about. Lili Reinhart explains why The Love Hypothesis had to change for the movie Credit: Prime Video Speaking to Refinery29, Reinhart explained that it really was a case of fitting a 300-400 page book into the space of 112 minutes. “I don’t really know why they chose which scenes [would make it in], but I think it’s just the ones that kind of jump off the page that feel the most cinematic as well,” she said. “You can’t put every single thing in there because sometimes it just wouldn’t work in a movie; it just wouldn’t make sense or flow in the right way that it does when you’re reading something.” The outlet notes how Reinhart is “chronically online,” and she pushed for certain book moments to be added to the script after joining the cast. She continued, “I was [for] research purposes seeing sort of the scenes and the lines that people really wanted, and I would push for those. They were mostly already actually in there, but maybe a few lines here and there I pushed for. I was able to give my input and notes on Olive and certain things that maybe I felt lines-wise from the book that people would really want.” Credit: Prime Video One fan-favourite moment that did survive the adaptation is when Olive makes Adam get his flu vaccination, better known as Fluchella. Tom Bateman, who plays Dr Adam Carlsen, explained why he thinks the scene was particularly important to keep, as it allows Olive to see a more vulnerable side of Adam. “It does so many things in that one moment. Olive gets to see a side of him that he’s still trying to protect,” he said. “There’s a playfulness there that comes out, but you’ve still got the rigidity of who these characters are.” Reinhart is well aware that some people will still complain, but she’s not too worried about it. “You can hate the movie if you want. Totally fine,” she said. “It’s par for the course when you do an adaptation. You genuinely know that some people are not going to like it, and not approve of you as this character that they have been thinking about in their head.” For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page. Featured image credit: Prime Video Post navigation Next storyPrevious story
