{"id":9513,"date":"2026-09-24T12:44:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T11:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/?p=9513"},"modified":"2026-09-24T12:44:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T11:44:46","slug":"the-love-hypothesis-director-explains-why-holden-was-cut-from-the-ending-amid-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2026\/09\/24\/the-love-hypothesis-director-explains-why-holden-was-cut-from-the-ending-amid-backlash\/","title":{"rendered":"The Love Hypothesis director explains why Holden was cut from the ending amid backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Love Hypothesis director Claire Scanlon has explained why Holden was cut from the Prime Video film, as the adaptation makes several changes to the ending of Ali Hazelwood\u2019s novel.<\/p>\n

The Love Hypothesis<\/a> film keeps the central love story between Olive Smith and Adam Carlsen, but it changes parts of the book’s ending. One of the biggest changes is removing Holden and giving Anh a much larger role instead.<\/p>\n

So, why was Holden cut from the film?<\/h2>\n
\"Why
Credit: Amazon Prime Video<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking to Swooon<\/a>, Scanlon said, \u201cSarah Rothschild did such a wonderful adaptation, paying homage to such wonderful moments. For instance, the sunscreen moment, the kiss, the unicorn socks, everything was so very much on point.”<\/p>\n

She added, “[In a movie,] you can\u2019t have everything in the book in there. I love the female-forward change.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, rather than keeping Holden in the story, the film increases Anh\u2019s importance during the final part of the story. And this also changes who knows about Olive and Adam\u2019s fake relationship.<\/p>\n

In Hazelwood\u2019s book, Malcolm is the person who knows they are fake dating. In the film, that role goes to Anh, who has apparently worked out what is really happening between her friend and Adam.<\/p>\n

For Scanlon, that reveal worked particularly well. She explained, \u201cAlso, in the book, it\u2019s Malcolm who knows they\u2019re fake dating, but what I loved about the Anh reveal is you don\u2019t see that coming. I didn\u2019t when I was reading the script; I was like, \u2018Oh, whoa! They didn\u2019t pull the wool over her eyes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said, \u201cAnh\u2019s not telling her, \u2018I know this is bulls**t, but you guys are cute and awkward together. Maybe if you kept pretending, it would become real,\u2019 and it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

That also leads into one of the film’s biggest changes to the ending. Instead of Holden being part of that final stretch, Anh becomes the person pushing Olive towards making her own decision.<\/p>\n

The change also means Anh is the one who tells Adam about Tom harassing Olive. Scanlon said Anh does this because she cares about both of them.<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cShe loves Adam, and she loves her friend. That\u2019s why she says, \u2018Did you know? Did he tell you?\u2019 And he\u2019s like, \u2018No, what? What are you talking about?\u2019 He\u2019s a good guy, so she makes the decision [to tell him], and that\u2019s why he says, \u2018You\u2019re such a good friend.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, <\/i>like our Facebook page<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anh has a much bigger role instead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":9514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[122,117,4,15,33,404],"coauthors":[18],"class_list":["post-9513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-amazon-prime","tag-book","tag-film","tag-now-showing","tag-prime-video","tag-the-love-hypothesis"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDirector explains why Holden was cut from The Love Hypothesis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Love Hypothesis director explains why Holden was cut from the film's ending, as there's huge backlash.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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