Out of all the 2026 movies being released, the story behind The Love Hypothesis (now streaming via Prime Video subscription) might be the most random. It’s a light-hearted romantic comedy that’s inspired by Star Wars fanfiction between Rey and Kylo Ren. Oh, and lead is played by Daisy Ridley’s actual husband, Tom Bateman. Now that the movie is here, fans just noticed another amazing Star Wars connection that crept its way into the final film.
The Love Hypothesis isn’t about a galaxy far, far away. It follows a graduate student named Olive (Lili Reinhart) who ends up in a fake dating relationship with her friends’ most critical professor Dr. Adam Carlsen (Bateman).Star Wars fans couldn’t help but notice one moment in the movie that sounds like “Rey’s Theme” from the sequel trilogy. Check it out:
It’s only a brief moment in the film, and is definitely easy to miss if you don’t know what you’re listening for. For those who fall into that camp, give this a listen:
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Now, it’s not exactly the same theme or anything litigation-worthy, and I expect it’s just different enough for Amazon MGM Studios to get away with sneaking in the reference without any blowback. But isn’t having even a soundalike in there wild? Here’s some of the comments on Twitter:
- “I was skeptical and immediately proven wrong that is sure as shit a rendition of Rey’s theme LMFAOOOOOOOOO” – @MaceAhWindu
- “this is batshit insane and i love it” – @spinneretmj
- “they really honored the ancient texts” – @amazinglychao
- “this is NUTS but i appreciate the gall” – @chujellys
- “this movie and its lore is the funniest and most interesting thing that has ever happened to the star wars fandom in decades” – @zoemaki
Fans are applauding the rom-com for going there with the little music cue. I also have to say, I noticed some inspiration from John Williams’ Star Wars villain themes a couple of times elsewhere in the movie, too.
Hey, it only makes sense for The Love Hypothesis to give credit where credit is due somewhere in the movie. Ali Hazelwood’s story was originally published online as Head Over Feet in 2018 under the pen name Ever-so-reylo.
It included the characters of Ben Solo, Rey and company, she later reworked it all into The Love Hypothesis without any explicit connections to Star Wars. At least within the story. It became a bestselling novel when it came out in 2021,, and with cover artwork that’s very much giving Kylo Ren and Rey.
She’s not the first to pull off this kind of literary feat. Fifty Shades of Grey famously started as a Twilight fanfic, and the After books and movies are based on one about Harry Styles.
We first heard that The Love Hypothesis was going to be a movie back in 2022, and here it is. Will any other book-to-screen adaptation have a reference that will top this one this year? I’m not sure it’s possible!