Anne Hathaway is making her triumphant return to the romantic comedy genre during the 2024 movie release schedule in Amazon’s The Idea of You. In it, she plays a divorced mother who falls in love with Hayes (played by Red, White & Royal Blue’s Nicholas Galitzine), the “it” member of her daughter’s favorite band, August Moon, after they meet at Coachella.
Adapted from the Robinee Lee novel of the same name, the story was loosely inspired by the real-life singer and One Direction member Harry Styles. The trailer released earlier this week along with a handful of promotional pictures of Galitzine and the rest of the fictional August Moon band members set the internet ablaze. Mostly, One Direction and Harry Styles fans who instantly made connections between the fictional August Moon and their beloved boy band. As expected, they took to social media to share their thoughts.
X User @laurengarfano clocked the similarities between a press photo of the RWRB actor as Hayes and its similarities to a common Styles pose instantly, promptly tweeting:
*screaming* at how they didn’t even try to hide the fact that the idea of you is about harry styles
It seems “loosely” inspired by Harry Styles might not be the most accurate term to describe this movie as this fan pointed out that the creators don’t seem to be hiding the similarities. If it were just one photo that would be one thing, but there are a dozen of clips and images of Galitzine that are basically exact replicas of the Grammy Award-winning singer.
This is the MOST Harry coded in the trailer like it’s not even coded it’s literally straight out of This Is Us https://t.co/y5OHbBhdrvMarch 6, 2024
Regardless of how the movie performs, one thing that’s certain is that the Cinderella star definitely did his research for the role. In fact, some fans have even begun speculating what videos of the One Direction member the actor studied because the similarities are just too uncanny. While another X User answered the hypothetical question, tweeting:
He studied One Direction: This Is Us movie documentary released in 2013 because that first pic is so 2013 harry coded.
It’s not just the mannerisms or the interesting array of tattoos though that has fans speculating about the eery similarities, but the entire August Moons band as a whole. A brand new Instagram account for the fictional band was created and immediately shared photos of Galitzine and the rest of the actors of The Idea of You in the boy band. The comments on almost all of the posts are unsurprisingly flooded by One Direction fans sharing their reactions:
- 1D is back – @pradafe shared on this photo
- welcome back harry styles from one direction – @marianaavf commented on this photo which features a caption similar to the ones Styles’ used to use on his own posts
- the new generation of one directionnnn – @buterasaugust wrote on this photo
As if the aesthetics of the band weren’t enough, the stage setup is similar to those used on One Direction’s massive world tours and the first August Moon single also sounds like it belongs in the real boy band’s discography. However, this might be more intentional than the other similarities since the song “Dance Before You Walk” is written by the same duo who penned 1D’s debut single “What Makes You Beautiful.”
While fans may never know how much, if any, One Direction research the creatives behind The Idea of You did while bringing August Moon to life, Directioners should definitely tune into the movie to see how deep the similarities actually go. Thankfully it’ll be for fans to do since the movie will be available to all Prime Video subscribers starting May 2nd.