‘The Love Hypothesis’ Trailer: Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman Embark on Fake Dating Scheme in STEM Romance
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Prime Video has released the official trailer for its film adaptation of Ali Hazelwood's bestselling novel "The Love Hypothesis," offering the first proper look at Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman's chemistry as leads Olive and Adam ahead of the film's streaming debut. The footage confirms key plot beats from the book, including the impulsive kiss that kicks off the pair's fake relationship, and reveals new detail about Adam's motivation for going along with the scheme: his university funding is at risk unless he appears more settled.
The trailer shows PhD candidate Olive kissing intimidating professor Adam Carlsen to convince her best friend Ahn she has moved on from their shared crush, Jeremy, prompting the pair to agree to fake date. Adam, nicknamed "Dr. Evil" by peers for his supposed lack of emotion, notes that a serious girlfriend could help persuade Stanford not to cut his research grant over fears he is a "flight risk." Directed by Claire Scanlon and written by Sarah Rothschild, the film also stars Jaboukie Young-White and Arty Froushan, with Reinhart and Bateman both saying they aimed to stay true to the book's spirit. "The Love Hypothesis" begins streaming on Prime Video on 23 September.
- New trailer reveals Adam's grant funding motivates the fake dating scheme
- Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman star as Olive and Adam
- "The Love Hypothesis" streams on Prime Video from 23 September
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Prime Video is releasing a film version of "The Love Hypothesis," a popular romance novel by Ali Hazelwood set in a university science department. The story follows Olive, a PhD student, who kisses a stern professor, Adam Carlsen, to convince her friend she has moved on from someone else, leading the pair to agree to fake being a couple.
Lili Reinhart plays Olive and Tom Bateman plays Adam, with Jaboukie Young-White and Arty Froushan also starring. The film is directed by Claire Scanlon from a script by Sarah Rothschild, and forms part of a wider trend of book-to-screen adaptations aimed at fans of the "romantasy" and campus-romance genres that have driven strong sales in publishing in recent years.
The novel has a large, dedicated readership, so the adaptation is being closely watched to see how faithfully it captures the book's tone and central relationship. "The Love Hypothesis" is set to begin streaming on Prime Video on 23 September.
Full account
Prime Video has released the official trailer for its film adaptation of Ali Hazelwood's bestselling novel The Love Hypothesis, confirming that the romantic comedy will begin streaming globally on 23 September 2026. Directed by Claire Scanlon, the film stars Lili Reinhart as Olive Smith, a PhD candidate at Stanford University whose focus on her academic future is upended after an impulsive kiss with a formidable professor. Tom Bateman plays that professor, Dr Adam Carlsen, a scientist with a fearsome reputation among students, who becomes central to Olive's unexpected predicament.
The story is set in motion when Olive realises that her best friend Ahn (Rachel Marsh) has developed feelings for Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay), a man Olive herself once liked. To reassure Ahn that the coast is clear, Olive kisses the first person she can find, who turns out to be Adam, caught off guard as he takes a drink from a water fountain. The moment, which nods to the kiss depicted on the cover of Hazelwood's novel, is followed by Olive dubbing him "Dr Evil" and Adam noting down her name from her staff badge. What starts as an awkward misunderstanding develops into a proposed arrangement: the pair agree to pose as a couple, a ruse that suits Olive's aim of putting Ahn and Jeremy together, while also serving Adam, whose research grant renewal at Stanford is in doubt because he is regarded as a "flight risk". As he puts it, a serious relationship might persuade the university otherwise.
Billed as an exploration of the tension between scientific reasoning and emotion, the film traces how the fake dating pact – bound by rules and boundaries agreed between the two leads – gradually blurs into something that feels genuine, unsettling both Olive and Adam and surprising colleagues who assumed Adam incapable of real feeling. The screenplay is written by Sarah Rothschild, with Elizabeth Cantillon producing, and the cast also includes Jaboukie Young-White and Arty Froushan. Reinhart and Bateman discussed the project at Obsessed Fest in June, where they described wanting to stay faithful to the tone of the source novel and to give audiences an old-fashioned, rewatchable romance.
Coverage of the trailer has varied in emphasis. One report concentrated on the film's credits, casting and the stars' remarks about honouring the book's spirit, while another placed more weight on the trailer's soundtrack choice – Reneé Rapp's "Messy" – and highlighted specific moments likely to excite readers of the novel, including a sunscreen scene between Olive and Adam and a glimpse of a later hotel-room scene in which Olive wears his T-shirt. That second account also traced the promotional rollout in more detail, noting an earlier teaser shown at Obsessed Fest in June that used a science-themed voiceover and additional dialogue between Olive and Ahn, before the newer trailer arrived in August. Both accounts agree, however, on the core premise, the September release date and the film's setting within Hazelwood's popular STEM-romance world.
Where outlets differ
Source 1 (The Hollywood Reporter) foregrounds the film's crew and cast beyond the two leads (screenwriter Sarah Rothschild, producer Elizabeth Cantillon, co-stars Jaboukie Young-White and Arty Froushan) and includes direct quotes from Reinhart and Bateman about staying true to the book, drawn from their June appearance at Obsessed Fest.
Source 2 gives more granular detail on the trailer itself, including the soundtrack (Reneé Rapp's 'Messy'), specific book-accurate scenes teased (the sunscreen moment and the hotel-room T-shirt scene), and treats the story as a rolling update, describing both the original June teaser (with its science-themed voiceover) and the newer August trailer separately.
Source 2 also notes Scanlon's prior directing credits (Set It Up, People We Hate at the Wedding) and draws a brief comparison to Apple TV's Lessons in Chemistry, comparisons not made in Source 1.
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