Fans of Ali Hazelwood’s book The Love Hypothesis might be surprised by the amount of changes — and omissions — in the new Lili Reinhart movie.
Prime Video’s new rom-com follows Ph.D. candidate Olive (Reinhart) and professor Adam a.k.a (Tom Bateman) as they pretend to be in a relationship before real feelings begin to get in the way. Hazelwood’s novel was originally a fan fiction story about Rey and Kylo Ren from the Star Wars franchise. (Bateman’s wife, Daisy Ridley, happened to play Rey opposite Adam Driver as Kylo.)
Ahead of the movie’s debut, Reinhart and Bateman hinted that some shakeups were made in order to bring Hazelwood’s vision to life.
“That’s what the script was able to feel like for me — while still keeping the integrity of both characters and doing the book justice,” Reinhart explained at Prime Video’s Obsessed Fest in June 2026. “Obviously, the importance of the book and the source material [is something we thought about].”
She continued: “We wanted to totally respect that and I think our writer Sarah [Rothschild] absolutely did. The heart of the book is in the film.”
Bateman agreed about the onscreen differences, adding, “Every single person involved with this had such a deep love for this book and for doing it justice for everyone that loves it, for the amazing characters and the world. The intention was always, ‘We want to make this the best it can be.’ And who better to tell it than a group of people who love it so much?”
Despite the changes that were made for the big screen, the actor insisted the source material “was always front and center” for the cast and crew. “We weren’t trying to get away from it in any way,” he said. “We were just trying to do our very, very best to give everyone what they want out of this story.”
Keep scrolling for the biggest changes in Prime Video’s The Love Hypothesis:
Adam’s Crush on Olive
As book fans know, Adam and Olive originally met prior to the events in the book. Olive, however, was struggling with expired contacts and didn’t realize who she was speaking to. Adam knew — and went on to develop a crush.
The movie does include the flashback, but Adam’s yearning for Olive — which explains why he agreed to fake date her in the book — isn’t included on screen.
Holden’s Absence
The biggest loss — especially to readers — was the character of Holden Rodriguez, Adam’s best friend and the love interest of Olive’s friend Malcolm. Holden was instrumental in bringing Adam and Olive together in Hazelwood’s novel and was often the comical relief to even out Adam’s more grumpy demeanor.
Chapter 16
The Love Hypothesis fans were on the edge of their seats waiting to see how the movie adapted the famous Chapter 16 — a.k.a Adam and Olive having sex for the first time. The movie version was significantly shorter (it technically spanned across three chapters in the book) and left out some memorable moments, such as Adam’s “you can take it” line.
Changing the Breakup
Olive is the one who ended her relationship with Adam in the book after being sexually harassed by his friend Tom. Adam later found out what happened and they got back together, which the movie chose to change.
Instead, Adam ended his arrangement with Olive on screen as a way to help her focus on her career.
The movie also addressed the issue with Tom (Arty Froushan) by having Olive’s friend Anh (Rachel Marsh) be the one to fill Adam in. This was a major departure from the book, which devoted an entire scene to Olive playing audio of Tom making an advance on her, leading to a heated confrontation between the two men.
Olive’s Sexuality
In the source material, Hazelwood had fans read between the lines when it came to Olive’s demisexuality. The movie, however, has a whole scene devoted to her learning about the label and how it could apply to her experience.
Anh’s Role in the Story
The fake dating plot initially as a way for Olive to convince Anh that she was no longer interested in ex Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay). The movie turned that into Olive previously having a crush on Jeremy, which made Anh refuse to explore her own feelings for him.
Anh also wasn’t aware that Olive and Adam weren’t really dating on the page, but she figured out that it was fake in the movie.
The Ending
The final scene of Hazelwood’s book has Olive and Adam recreating their first kiss one year later. The movie features a two-year time jump that confirmed that Olive and Anh became Stanford professors with Adam.
