A Star Wars Fanfic Franchise Gave Us A Rey Sequel Before Star Wars Did
Episode 2: Attack of the Sequels.
Rey and Kylo Ren were the perfect pairing for fanfiction writers. Their dynamic was full of angst, their personalities couldn’t be more different, and their romance was just ambiguous enough to spark imaginations. It’s no wonder that “Reylo” fanfiction quickly became one of the most popular pairings in the Star Wars fandom, and from there, it was only a matter of time before it broke into the mainstream.
Ali Hazelwood’s hit fake-dating romance novel The Love Hypothesis is actually a Reylo fanfiction (originally titled Head Over Feet) with the identifying details changed. Rey became Olive, and Ben became Adam, but because the original fanfiction was set in modern-day academia, the main plot remained. The book was just adapted into a movie starring Riverdale’s Lili Reinhart and Daisy Ridley’s real-life husband, Tom Bateman, and now the book is getting a follow-up — and the movie might, too.
Hazelwood recently announced on her Instagram that The Two-Body Problem, the sequel to The Love Hypothesis, will be released on February 2, 2027, and Amazon MGM Studios is already developing a film adaptation. “For now let me just say that the TLH movie and its cast made me fall for Adam and Olive all over again, that revisiting them was an absolute pleasure,” Hazelwood wrote in the announcement.
We don’t know much about the plot yet, but Hazelwood did provide a few clues. “The Two-Body Problemspans a couple of years, and it’s a mix of slice of life, postdoctoral turmoil, and unflinching exploration of the hardest challenge one will face in a long-term relationship: deciding what to have for dinner,” she wrote. The accompanying image includes a bit more detail: “Olive Smith finally has her PhD, and she’s living her happy ever after. Well, not quite her ever after, since postdoctoral fellowships are temporary by nature, but she doesn’t mind: she has her friends, her research, and best of all, she has Dr. Adam Carlsen,” the description reads. “Being in love with another researcher means navigating the hard reality of clashing schedules, an increasingly grim and ultracompetitive job market, and Olive’s desire to be seen as a formidable scientist in her own right.”
This book’s title, The Two-Body Problem, is an obvious reference to The Three-Body Problem, a physics challenge involving the relationship between celestial bodies that inspired the sci-fi novel of the same name by Liu Cixin. But there’s another reference there, too: in academia, the “two-body problem” can refer to the difficulty of two academics having a relationship while still furthering their careers. This is the exact dilemma Olive and Adam are getting themselves into.
Within the Star Wars world, we’re still waiting with bated breath for the promised sequel movie focused on Rey. The last we heard, a new writer was working on the script, but that was 18 months ago. If we can’t follow up with Star Wars’ Rey anytime soon, we can at least see what’s going on with this alternate version.
The Love Hypothesis is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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