Prime Video’s new fake-dating experiment ‘The Love Hypothesis’: inside the cast
Prime Video’s most anticipated love experiment, The Love Hypothesis, shows its hand with a cast you’ll want to size up.
Tom Bateman says he didn’t clock the wild “Reylo” connection until after he’d already said yes to The Love Hypothesis. According to Bateman, director Claire Scanlon was the one who spelled it out for him once the deal was done. He remembered asking:
“What do you mean?”
As he tells it to ELLE, Scanlon replied with a twist he hadn’t considered:
“Well, not really you and this book. Your wife and this book.”
Here’s the kicker: before Ali Hazelwood’s story became a bestseller, it started life as Rey/Kylo Ren fan fiction. Rey was played by Daisy Ridley —who, off-screen, is married to Bateman. The real-life tie between the inspiration and the new movie ’s leading man was, by all accounts, a happy accident.
Star and executive producer Lili Reinhart stresses the surprise was genuine. As she told ELLE:
“People genuinely think that Tom and Daisy knew about this. They did not know, I can tell you that with 100-percent certainty.”
Once Ridley heard about it, she was all for the full‑circle moment, calling it “very thrilling” that the hit romance was inspired by something she’d been part of.
Who’s playing who
Prime Video ’s movie centers on a fake-dating setup that turns dangerously real between a grad student and the famously prickly professor who agrees to play along. Reinhart leads the cast as Olive, opposite Bateman as Adam.
- Lili Reinhart — Olive Smith
- Tom Bateman — Dr. Adam Carlsen
- Rachel Marsh — Anh Pham
- Nicholas Duvernay — Jeremy Langley
- Jaboukie Young-White — Malcolm Browne
- Arty Froushan — Dr. Thomas Benton
- Jeananne Goossen — cast
- Aladeen Tawfeek — cast
On their resumes
- Reinhart is best known for Riverdale and the films Hustlers and Chemical Hearts (she also serves as an executive producer here).
- Bateman’s credits include Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and the TV dramas Beecham House and Hedda.
- Marsh has appeared in Fallout and Adults.
- Duvernay’s recent work includes The White Lotus and Reminders of Him.
- Young-White has popped up in Rap Sh!t and Only Murders in the Building.
The Love Hypothesis premieres worldwide on Prime Video on September 23, 2026 .