Never mind Adam Driver — Tom Bateman was the missing variable in The Love Hypothesis.

The British actor is set to star alongside Lili Reinhart in a big-screen adaptation of Ali Hazelwood's best-selling romance novel, Amazon MGM Studios announced Thursday. Claire Scanlon (Set It Up) is directing, from a script by Sarah Rothschild (The Sleepover).

The Love Hypothesis follows Olive (Reinhart), a third-year Ph.D. candidate who begins a faux relationship with a hotshot young professor, Adam (Bateman), to prove to her best friend that she can have a long-term relationship. The issue? Olive and Adam can't stand each other. But in typical rom-com fashion, the tension between them soon evolves into something new, as their experiment nears the point of combustion.

In a twist that the Force itself couldn't have conjured, Hazelwood's book evolved out of Head Over Feet, a work of Star Wars fan fiction published online in 2018 imagining a romantic relationship between rival warriors Kylo Ren and Rey, collectively known as "Reylo." Those characters were, of course, played by Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley, the latter of whom is married to — you guessed it — Bateman.

Ridley couldn't help but acknowledge her connection to the project, resharing the news that her husband was cast on her Instagram stories. The couple first met while working on Kenneth Branagh's 2017 whodunnit Murder on the Orient Express and began dating shortly after. Ridley and Bateman kept details of their relationship private for many years, but she confirmed that they'd wed in a 2023 interview with Rolling Stone.

When news of the Love Hypothesis movie broke Wednesday, Hazelwood said in a statement, "Honestly, I still can't believe this is happening? [Producer] Elizabeth Cantillon, Claire Scanlon, and Lili Reinhart have all created, produced, or starred in works that I'm absolutely feral about, and I am beyond honored that they're choosing to bring their talent to this project. Books and films are very different media, and I have complete trust in this brilliant team. I cannot wait to see the final product they'll come up with. I hope they have as much fun filming as I had while writing the book."

The Love Hypothesis was published in 2021 by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House. The novel spent 10 months on the New York Times best-seller list and became an international sensation, with rights sold in 40 countries. The Love Hypothesis was also named the Best Romance of the Year by Amazon.

Back in 2023, Collider asked Ridley if she was aware that more than one New York Times best-seller was inspired by the Reylo dynamic in the Star Wars sequels. The actress who hadn't yet heard of the books, called that fact "f‑‑‑ing cool."

She added, "Honestly, for anyone to just write a book is so impressive, let alone a New York Times bestseller, let alone something inspired by something I was part of. That's very thrilling… So thank you, whoever wrote The Love Hypothesis and The Hurricane Wars. Wow."