The Love Hypothesis Cast: Meet Lili Reinhart and the Others Bringing Ali Hazelwood’s Characters to Life

Riverdale star Lili Reinhart takes on the role of Olive Smith, a “brilliant Ph.D. candidate focused on her future in academia.” The official logline reveals, “When she realizes her best friend Anh has fallen for her crush Jeremy, Olive impulsively kisses intimidating professor Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman) to prove she’s moved on.” And yes, we readers already know how that ends. In a recent interview with PEOPLE, Reinhart expressed, “It feels really amazing to be in a romantic comedy that’s centered around women in science because that just doesn’t happen, and it feels like an honor to be able to give those girls the moment they deserve. So we’re lucky that this movie gives them the credit where credit is due.”

The grumpy Adam Carlsen is played by none other than Tom Bateman, best known for Behind Her Eyes and Death on the Nile. Carlsen is a professor who is famous for making his students cry, which was pretty apparent when Olive called him “Dr. Evil” in the trailer, right after kissing him! But why would the no-nonsense, always-frowning Carlsen agree to a fake relationship with Olive? Because he's a man starved! He has had a MASSIVE crush on Olive ever since a fateful incident involving expired contact lenses three years ago. Of course, he doesn’t tell her that and instead gives her a different reason for agreeing to the fake dating arrangement: frozen research funds. While chatting with ELLE, Bateman said that Olive and Adam’s characters remind him “a little bit of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett. They’re these outsiders who are misunderstood by people. But in them trying to understand each other, we as the audience get to go, ‘Oh, there’s more to these people than meets the eye’.”

Rachel Marsh stars as Anh, Olive’s best friend and a fellow biology graduate student, who falls for Jeremy, Olive’s former crush and ex-boyfriend. Because Anh feels guilty and hesitant about liking Jeremy, Olive decides to pretend she has moved on by claiming she is dating Professor Adam Carlsen. So, that makes Anh the catalyst for Olive and Adam’s fake-dating romance, which eventually becomes real. Marsh recently told PEOPLE, “I don't really read a lot of romance novels, but now I do. Now, it's my genre.” Fans may know Marsh from Unstable, Adults, and Fallout.

Nicholas Duvernay is cast as Jeremy, Olive’s ex-boyfriend, but he now has a mutual crush on her best friend, Anh. He likes Anh, and Anh likes him, but she hesitates to date him out of loyalty to Olive. So, when Olive gets into a relationship with Adam (a fake one), Jeremy and Anh feel relieved and start seeing each other more openly and with more confidence. If they only knew! Duvernay’s notable credits include Not Suitable for Work, Reminders of Him, The Winchesters, and Purple Hearts.

Jaboukie Young-White portrays Malcolm, Olive Smith’s supportive roommate and close friend. He’s the only one Olive confides in about her fake-dating arrangement with Dr. Adam Carlsen. Those who have read the book know that later in the story, Malcolm begins dating Dr. Holden Rodriguez, a faculty member and Adam’s childhood friend. Their side story was really interesting, especially that double date! It remains to be seen whether the movie will include that storyline or skip it completely. Young-White previously starred in The Threesome and Dating & New York.

Arty Froushan appears as Tom in The Love Hypothesis, an associate professor at Harvard University and an old friend of Adam. Tom initially appears to be a good guy when he offers Olive a spot in his lab, but soon, his real motives start coming to light. Without spoiling much, we can only advise viewers not to let Froushan’s good looks distract them from what his character is really plotting. Froushan has worked on projects including Carnival Row, H Is for Hawk, Downton Abbey 3, and The Persian Version.