"It's sick": Harry Styles-inspired fanfic's film adaptation The Idea Of You starring Nicholas Galitzine and Anne Hathaway stirs controversy

As the trailer of The Idea of You dropped, social media users began to draw a resemblance between the 24-year-old boyband member, Hayes Campbell, and the popular singer Harry Styles. Many started claiming that the character in the movie is inspired by the former One Direction singer.

The Idea of You is adapted from Robinne Lee’s novel, The Idea of You, which was released in 2017. The trailer showed how the 40-year-old Solene, who is played by Anne Hathaway, starts a romance with Hayes after she attends his pop concert.

While the audience is convinced that the character in the movie looked way too familiar as they claimed it to be “inspired” by Harry Styles, the author of the book, claimed that a few angles were taken from Harry Styles' life, especially the fact that he often dated older women like Caroline Flack and Olivia Wilde, both aged 40.

Talking to Vogue in 2020, Lee said:

“Inspired is a strong word. The seed was planted after researching One Direction in 2017 and discovering that Styles often dated older women. This was never supposed to be a book about Harry Styles. "

Talking about how the author "borrowed" some of Harry, Lee also said:

"I definitely borrowed some of Harry, but I feel that Hayes Campbell’s a combination of lots of different people: Prince Harry, Prince William, Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch, my husband and about four different ex-boyfriends.”

However, as the trailer went viral on social media, it grabbed a lot of attention as many commented on the fact that the angle of Harry Styles dating older women was drawn into the movie. One social media user also called it “sick,” and said:

Social media users express displeasure as many claim that Hayes' character has been inspired by Harry Styles. (Image via @PopCrave/ X)

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Social media users left displeased as The Idea of You trailer releases

As the trailer of The Idea of You was released by the makers, many netizens were convinced that Hayes’ character, played by Nicholas Galitzine was inspired by the life of Harry Styles, as he too played in a boyband, and often dated older women.

While the author claimed that it was not 100% inspired by the singer, social media users were still left displeased.

Social media users express displeasure as many claim that Hayes' character has been inspired by Harry Styles. (Image via @PopCrave/ X)

Many also brought in various “grooming theories” as social media users brought in the angle of Harry Styles being “forced” to date older women due to PR.

As an X account, @PopCrave posted about the same on the platform, here is how the netizens responded:

Social media users express displeasure as many claim that Hayes' character has been inspired by Harry Styles. (Image via @PopCrave/ X)

Social media users express displeasure as many claim that Hayes' character has been inspired by Harry Styles. (Image via @PopCrave/ X)

Social media users express displeasure as many claim that Hayes' character has been inspired by Harry Styles. (Image via @PopCrave/ X)

Social media users express displeasure as many claim that Hayes' character has been inspired by Harry Styles. (Image via @PopCrave/ X)

Social media users express displeasure as many claim that Hayes' character in The Idea of You has been inspired by Harry Styles. (Image via @PopCrave/ X)

Social media users express displeasure as many claim that Hayes' character in The Idea of You has been inspired by Harry Styles. (Image via @PopCrave/ X)

Social media users express displeasure as many claim that Hayes' character in The Idea of You has been inspired by Harry Styles. (Image via @PopCrave/ X)

Social media users express displeasure as many claim that Hayes' character in The Idea of You has been inspired by Harry Styles. (Image via @PopCrave/ X)

While the book has been a super hit as it has sold over a million copies, the makers of the movie The Idea of You are also expecting immense love from the masses.

However, at the moment, they have not responded to the comments of the netizens regarding the inspiration drawn from Harry Style’s love life.