Updated, August 26, 7 a.m.: A new trailer for Prime Video’s The Love Hypothesis film adaptation has arrived, set to Reneé Rapp’s “Messy.”
Olive Smith (Lili Reinhart) will do anything for her best friend Ahn (Rachel Marsh), including surprise kiss the notorious Dr. Adam Carlsen — who is known to be very hard on his students — to prove that she’s not into her crush Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay).
One of Stanford University’s most important faculty members, Olive calls him “Dr. Evil” right after she plants a smooch on his lips as he turns around from taking a drink at a water fountain.
Turns out, a fake dating arrangement between the pair could work because the school may not renew Dr. Carlsen’s research grant, deeming him a “flight risk.”
“A serious girlfriend might change their minds,” he concludes.
Readers will be excited to glimpse Olive rubbing sunscreen on Adam’s back, a key scene in the book, as well as the beginning of that steamy scene in the hotel room when she wears one of his T-shirts, which is teased at the end of the clip.
Directed by Claire Scanlon (People We Hate At The Wedding, Set It Up), the film, adapted from the best-selling book by Ali Hazelwood, will premiere exclusively on Prime Video on September 23, 2026. Set in the high-stakes world of academia, The Love Hypothesis explores the delicate dance between science and emotion, reason and risk—and what happens when love defies logic.
Previous, June 27, 1:30 p.m.:Chemistry is brewing in the first trailer for Amazon’s The Love Hypothesis, released out of Obsessed Fest this afternoon. The short snippet of footage played in the room for the audience of fans.
The clip is reminiscent of Apple TV’s Lessons in Chemistry, though the themes are a big different and it is a romantic comedy. Shot through older lenses and narrated by a man’s voice explaining science, viewers get a peak at the “fake dating” pact that centers the story.
“The universe is built on trying to find order through connection,” the voice says at the beginning of the teaser. “Molecules stay in motion, vibrating and colliding until they find a match, and when the do, something miraculous happens…”
“They form a bond!”
“I’m seeing someone,” Lili Reinhart’s Olive tells Rachel Marsh’s Ahn in the lab after she’s realized Ahn has fallen for Olive’s crush Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay). Olive wants Ahn to shoot her shot.
“Like a therapist?” Ahn asks, to which Olive answers “No, like a human man.
Based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Ali Hazelwood, The Love Hypothesis follows Olive (Reinhart), a brilliant Ph.D. candidate focused on her future in academia, but an impulsive kiss with the intimidating professor Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman) in front of her best friend changes the trajectory of her time at Stanford University.
Lili Reinhart in ‘The Love Hypothesis’
Amazon MGM Studios
There is some sort of tension after Olive hastily kisses Carlsen, who grabs her key-in badge to learn her name.
What begins as a desperate act of to prove she’s moved on spirals into a fake relationship for Olive with rules, boundaries, and a mutually beneficial agreement. When the arrangement she has with her senior colleague begins to blur the lines between performance and reality, Olive is forced to test her most daunting hypothesis yet: that love might actually be worth the risk.
Dr. Carlsen returns the favor of a somewhat spontaneous kiss at the end of the clip when all of Olive’s friends are watching from the porch of a house.
“Isn’t science fun?” the voice from earlier comes back into play.
Claire Scanlon directs from a script by Sarah Rothschild. Elizabeth Cantillon produces the film. The Love Hypothesis will start streaming on Prime Video Sept. 23. Watch the first teaser trailer below:
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