Tom Bateman embraces rom-com stardom in Prime Video’s “The Love Hypothesis,” costarring Lili Reinhart. The story originated with fan fiction involving his wife Daisy Ridley’s “Star Wars” character.
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NEW YORK − Tom Bateman can’t go without his daily coffee. Last week, he handed out cold brews and lattes at “The Love Hypothesis” pop-up to overeager fans. Bateman’s go-to coffee order: a double espresso with a spoon of honey, a sweeter alternative compared to his hardline onscreen counterpart, who prefers his coffee black.
If you’re new here, the cafe plays a pivotal role in “The Love Hypothesis” (streaming Sept. 23 on Prime Video): It’s where Olive Smith, a Ph.D. candidate (Lili Reinhart), has her first (fake) date with Dr. Adam Carlsen (Bateman).
The film, directed by Claire Scanlon, follows the unlikely relationship between a pancreatic cancer researcher and the university’s most loathed professor, nicknamed Dr. Evil. It’s adapted from Ali Hazelwood’s bestselling book “The Love Hypothesis,” which originated from “Star Wars” fan fiction about Daisy Ridley’s Rey and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren. Ridley’s husband Bateman takes on the romantic lead after roles in “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Based on a True Story.” As he settles into his newfound fame with an obsessive fanbase, he asks himself a question.
“Am I ready to be a Hollywood rom-com guy?” he says. “Yeah, sure. It’s cool.”
Ahead of casting announcements in July 2025, Bateman, 37, felt a casual indifference about the prospect of starring in a romantic comedy. (His next projects include thrillers like the Harlan Coben adaptation “The Woods” and Kenneth Branagh’s “The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde.”) After some insistence from his agent, he learned to love the uptight professorial role and began reading lines with Reinhart. Her outsized “Riverdale” fame didn’t faze Bateman − except for the occasional “Oh, my God, it’s Lili” as they shot the movie in Montreal.
Reinhart was “a big reason why I wanted to do it, because the chemistry was there straight away,” Bateman says. “It was so playful, so fun. I loved what she was doing in the scenes and she was really picking up on what I was doing. Each take we did just got richer and richer. And when I got off the chemistry read, I thought, God, I really hope that goes my way.”
As he prepped for the film, he drew parallels to other book-to-film adaptations such as the broody, unfeeling Mr. Darcy, played by Colin Firth, in the 1995 miniseries “Pride & Prejudice.”
“You can tell he’s a proud man and people see that as a bad thing, but actually he’s being true to himself in it,” Bateman says. “I thought that was a nice place to start from for Adam.”
The “Love Hypothesis” novel quickly became a BookTok phenomenon as fans dissected its steamy scenes and taboo romance. Reading the script, Bateman says he didn’t have any qualms about the teacher-student romance and applauded Hazelwood’s book portrayal.
“She addresses it very early with Adam and Olive where she says, ‘Is this weird?’ ” Bateman says. “But because he’s not her professor, he never teaches her. There’s no crossover. There can be no, I guess, abuse of power there because they just happen to be at the same university campus, but they never meet.”
Some breadcrumbs from the fan fiction remain; for example, Dr. Adam Carlsen shares a name with Adam Driver. Other moments were coincidental, such as Bateman’s marriage to Ridley.
“The truth is stranger than fiction,” Bateman says, adding he didn’t know about the book’s genesis. “Once they started to hone in on me, the story I’ve been told is someone said, ‘You know who Tom’s married to, right?’ And when it came out, all of them went, ‘Are you kidding me?’ “
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After Bateman nailed the gig, he broke the news to Ridley by phone.
“Daisy had heard, I think someone had told her about this book being written, and Daisy went, ‘Yeah, no, I heard about that. I heard that there was this book written,’ ” Bateman says. “But she just like me went, ‘Huh, interesting.’ “
A proud “Star Wars” fan, Bateman says he hasn’t read the fan fiction. And he might not have to. There’s a fan base crafting TikTok explainers, ready to tell him all he needs to know, if he’s prepared to listen.
“I don’t really watch my stuff very much, but I sat down and watched this with Daisy in this cinema, and I just loved it,” Bateman says. “And there’s so many little things in there that I think fans of the book are going to notice.”