The Idea of You Isn't Based on Fan Fiction, But Would That Really Be So Bad?

When the trailer for The Idea of You first came out, many people mistakenly believed the rom-com is based on Harry Styles fan fiction. To be fair, it wouldn’t be the first time Hollywood looked to the One Direction singer for inspiration — Netflix’s After films, which are based on the books by Anna Todd, have direct roots in the author’s Wattpad fics about him. 

But unlike After, The Idea of You (which premieres May 2 on Prime Video) was never fan fiction. Based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Robinne Lee, the film centers on 40-year-old single mom Solène Marchand (Anne Hathaway) who unexpectedly embarks on a whirlwind romance with 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the dreamy lead singer of popular boy band August Moon.

It’s understandable why people assume the movie is about Styles. In a 2017 interview, Lee revealed that she first came up with the idea for the book while watching YouTube videos of an unnamed boy band. “I came across the face of a boy I’d never seen in a band I’d never paid attention to, and it was so aesthetically perfect it took me by surprise,” she recalled. “I spent a good hour or so Googling and trying to figure out who this kid was, and in doing so, I discovered that he often dated older women, and so the seed was planted.”

Even if “this kid” was indeed Styles, Lee’s creative process here is fundamentally no different than an author who finds inspiration in a random conversation with a stranger, or a screenwriter who credits classic movies for molding their style. Every idea ultimately has to originate from somewhere, and sometimes that source of inspiration just happens to be something silly like a boy band music video. 

So, no, The Idea of You isn’t a secret self-insert Harry Styles fic disguised as a blockbuster, no matter how fiercely the internet is convinced it is. But even if the movie were based on a fan fic, why would that automatically mean it’s doomed to be terrible? What’s so wrong with fan fiction anyway?

Fan fiction may not be as mainstream of a hobby as golf or pickleball, but it’s no longer some super niche, embarrassing thing that only lives within the confines of anonymous internet discussion boards. One of the largest fan fiction archives, Archive of Our Own (more widely known as AO3) hosts nearly six million registered users alone. 

The way Hollywood and the literary world engage with fandom has also changed significantly. In the past, authors/creators and actors often distanced themselves from fan works. Interview With the Vampire author Anne Rice was vehemently opposed to anyone writing fan fiction about her characters, even going so far as to threaten legal action (the law is vague when it comes to fan works, but it’s argued that they fall under “fair use”). 

Plenty of modern authors are fine with fan fiction and see it as a starting point for aspiring writers; others like The Magicians author Lev Grossman have defended it as a valid form of writing in itself. “You’re working with characters and in worlds created by somebody else, so you don’t start from scratch,” Grossman told Vulture in 2015. “But novelists don’t always start from scratch, either.” Now, people like Neil Gaiman and Misha Collins boast about AO3 ship rankings, Paul Cornell (who wrote on BBC’s Doctor Who, among other hit shows) has been open about his journey from fan fic writer to professional, and even Academy Award winner Chloé Zhao writes fan fiction.

Although works on AO3 obviously aren’t held to the same rigorous standards as traditionally published books, that doesn’t make them automatically inferior in nature. There’s a reason why Star Wars fics are being transformed into best-selling novels (like Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis) and studios are looking to Wattpad stories for the next big YA hits — fan fiction clearly hits the sweet spot for a lot of people. When it comes down to it, browsing Wattpad is really no different from scrolling through Netflix and hoping to stumble upon something that will let you turn off your brain for a little while. 

While The Idea of You isn’t fan fiction, it still shares a lot of the same elements that make fics so popular in the first place. The idea of falling in love with a famous musician is a fantasy as old as time itself — before BTS and Harry Styles, there was Beatlemania and Elvis Presley. Plus, anyone who was on the internet in the 2010s surely remembers how prevalent those “your mom sold you to One Direction” fics were. Solène and Hayes crossing paths at Coachella and instantly having incredible chemistry is theoretically possible, in a needle-in-a-haystack kind of way, but it definitely feels like something straight out of Wattpad. 

However, The Idea of You feeling like fan fiction at times isn’t a bad thing at all. While the movie certainly has moments of realism, at its core, it’s a fantasy about what it would be like to date a hot pop star — and that’s what makes it so enjoyable to watch. That kind of escapism is arguably what’s always made rom-coms so appealing in the first place. Films like Notting Hill, Crazy Rich Asians, and Red, White & Royal Blue aren’t popular because they’re realistic, but because they’re fun, captivating, and, above all, a nice break from normal life… just like fan fiction.

Like anything that caters primarily to women, both fan fiction and rom-coms tend to get judged pretty harshly. From boy bands to the Twilight craze to the recent Colleen Hoover phenomenon, the world is always eager to label anything female-dominated as “cringe” or “bad.” Of course, that’s not to say there aren’t any valid criticisms — even the fan fiction community holds varying opinions when it comes to writing fics about celebrities, or if “shipping” real people crosses a line. Still, it’s worth unpacking why we’re so much quicker to roll our eyes at something like The Idea of You than, say, the latest formulaic action flick. 

While fandoms have plenty of issues, they’ve also been a haven for so many. Queer fans in particular have found a home in fan fiction, where “slash” (same-gender) pairings are overwhelmingly popular, with many crediting the community for helping them figure out their identities. 

There’s also something incredibly freeing about being in the driver’s seat and having the power to put your favorite fictional characters in any scenario, relationship, or timeline. Whether you want to write Harry Potter characters as trans, imagine a world where Steve Harrington and Eddie Munson are boyfriends, rewrite a plot point that irritated you in canon, or make the Heartstopper crew be pirates just for kicks, the possibilities are endless. Ultimately, the real world is exhausting enough — we might as well kick back, disconnect, and enjoy fan fiction and movies like The Idea of You when we can.

The Idea of You premieres May 2 on Prime Video.

Kelly Martinez is a TV Reporter based in Los Angeles. Her previous work can be found at BuzzFeed and People Magazine, among other outlets. She enjoys reading, spending time with her cat, and explaining the plot of Riverdale to people.