Is Fan Fiction Really the Next Frontier in IP?

In recent years, interest in fan fiction has risen right alongside Hollywood’s persistent investment in adapting pre-existing IP. Novels and plays in the book-to-screen pipeline are now simply another part of the ecosystem, and it seems fanfic as a viable IP isn’t just the latest trend, but an industry-wide move to appeal directly to pre-existing fanbases and trust narratives that have been tried and tested repeatedly.

Fanfic — the practice of fans writing fiction based on pre-existing work and characters, often with relationships that differ from the original canon — has grown so popular and expansive that it’s impossible to ignore. Contemporary fanfic is said to have originated in the late 1960s, when the “Star Trek” fandom wrote fanzines; a popular pairing was James T. Kirk and Spock.

Today, fanfic has moved online; one of the leading fanfic platforms, Archive of Our Own (AO3), hosts over 18 million works across more than 81,250 fandoms and averages over 125 million page views a day. While AO3’s readership continues to grow exponentially (November 2025 saw over 146.6 million weekly page views more than the previous November), fanfic is also breaking into mainstream culture, with people openly declaring themselves fanfic readers and even celebs weighing in on fanfic.

In world scope of cinema, the fanfic-to-mainstream film is still in its infancy. The first notable commercial hit was the 2015 erotic drama “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Sam Taylor-Johnson adapted E. L. James’ 2011 eponymous novel, which originated as a “Twilight” alternate-universe fanfic, “Master of the Universe,” that reimagined Edward Cullen as a wealthy CEO who introduces Bella Swan to a world of BDSM.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” went on to make over $569 million at the box office, proving that its fanfic roots didn’t limit its commercial value. The film even spawned a three-film franchise, with the entire trilogy eventually pulling in over one billion dollars in box office bucks.

Just over a decade later, the latest major fanfic-originating production is “The Love Hypothesis.” Claire Scanlon’s romance adapts Ali Hazelwood’s best-selling novel of the same name, in which PhD student Olive enters a fake-dating arrangement with young professor Adam, a plot that originated as “Star Wars” fan fiction, “Head Over Feet,” which plotted a romance between Rey Skywalker and Kylo Ren.

Nicholas Galitzine and Anne Hathaway in ‘The Idea of You’©Amazon/Courtesy Everett Collection

There’s also been Prime Video’s “The Idea of You,” based on a Harry Styles fanfic starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine; similarly, Netflix’s “After” series is based on novels by Anna Todd that began as Styles-inspired fanfic. The third season of “My Life with the Walter Boys” premiered this year, with a fourth on the horizon; the novel adapted for the series was a Wattpad original first.

And this year saw another fanfic breakthrough: the forthcoming “Alchemised,” once the second-most-read work on AO3 and now the subject of a history-making seven-figure pre-publication deal for the screen rights to SenLinYu’s novel. The dark fantasy book originated as a fanfic titled “Manacled,” reimagining “Harry Potter” characters Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy in a romance embedded in a “The Handmaid’s Tale”-esque universe.

In all these productions, it’s not as simple as simply translating from page to screen; the adaptation process scrubs these works of any explicit references to the original fanfic subjects. Stripped of the original IP during book publication and again in screen adaptation, these works end up twice removed from their fanfic origins.

Here, the idea that Hollywood is truly interested in the creative possibilities of a fanfic-originating adaptation becomes weak. Instead, studios seem to be picking works that come with a hungry audience attached but can still exist independent of their roots. There can be very subtle nods to the original fanfic for dedicated fans but, on the whole, an audience member could view the film with no concept of its origin because it is so severed.

This is a new path for studios toward the same goal: a risk-averse choice likely to perform well because of its preexisting success.

Additionally, this new potential of fanfic-to-film productions should feel refreshing, bringing new voices to the forefront and stories that haven’t followed the traditional route to production. However, that veneer may not be as revolutionary as it first seems.

Looking at the stories making it to the big screen, you’ll see they are predominantly heterosexual romances. It’s an interesting observation when AO3 repeatedly reports that M/M relationships dominate its most popular ships, from Evan Buckley and Eddie Diaz of “9-1-1” to Ilya Rozonav and Shane Hollander of “Heated Rivalry” to Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne of “Batman.”

‘Heated Rivalry’Bell Media/Crave

And fanfic adaptations aren’t just capturing attention in the film industry; fanfic is also a promotional tool, with films that have nothing to do with fanfic embracing it.

For “Wicker,” a fanfic competition was launched in line with the film’s release: “Write a spicy story inspired by The Wicker Husband, the short story behind the film, for the chance to have it transformed into a fully produced Quinn Original.” It’s another example of fanfic’s mainstreaming in pop culture; it’s no longer confined to a shadowy corner of the internet, but is now a hunting ground for publishers and producers seeking new material.

It’s as if there’s a desire to tap into the hype of the fanfic moment without taking major risks. Fanfic making it to the big screen may not be the revolutionary breakthrough one might assume, but rather an extension of the remake-and-adaptation culture that has become the norm.

But what sticks is the potential of fanfic narratives, born of the desire to see resonant characters in new dynamics and situations. And Hollywood still hasn’t truly invested in that kind of originality.