A24’s UK arm has optioned the television rights to Alexis Hall’s Boyfriend Material, according to Deadline, which broke the news on April 29. If you’ve read the book (and if you haven’t, get onto it), you already know why Hollywood came calling. Here’s everything confirmed, rumoured and denied so far.
The story so far
Boyfriend Material follows Luc O’Donnell, a 28-year-old disaster with a washed-up rock star for a father and a tabloid-wrecked reputation, who recruits uptight barrister Oliver Blackwood to fake-date his way back into the public’s good books. Published in 2020, it’s the first book in Hall’s now-completed London Calling trilogy, and it built its audience the old-fashioned BookTok way — word of mouth, then a lot of it.
READ MORE: My review of Boyfriend Material, the book that started it all
READ MORE: My review of Husband Material ahead of the release of Father Material
READ MORE: My review of Father Material, the final of Luc and Oliver’s adventures
Who’s behind it
A24 UK holds the TV rights. Beyond that, the studio hasn’t named a writer, showrunner or director, and there’s no word yet on whether Hall himself will have any hand in adapting his own book for the screen. A24 has increasingly gone looking for its next series in the BookTok pile, and Boyfriend Material‘s built-in, rusted-on readership makes it an obvious pick.
What we don’t know yet
No broadcaster or streamer. No writer or director. No casting. No release window. In short: almost everything is still to be decided, and there’s no timeline yet for when any of it will be.
READ MORE: Rereading ‘10 Things That Never Happened’: the Christmas rom-com I think I’ll read every year
The buzz that got it here
The book’s numbers speak for themselves — it was named a best book of the year by outlets including Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Goodreads and The Washington Post, and it’s stayed a BookTok and Bookstagram fixture for six years running. Fans haven’t waited for an official casting call either: there’s already a dedicated fan-casting page for Luc and Oliver on myCast, and Louis Partridge’s name keeps coming up in fan edits doing the rounds on TikTok. None of that is official casting — it’s fans getting ahead of themselves, which is usually a good sign for how much a book is loved.
Australian readers have plenty of reason to be invested too: Boyfriend Material has stayed a steady seller here since 2020, and copies are easy to find through Booktopia, QBD and Dymocks if this news has sent you (back) to the source material.
Hall himself has been cagey. Asked directly about a TV show during a Q&A in June, he said: “I’m afraid I do not have information on this. I am not in control of this — that’s happening kind of in the background. The TV industry is a really, really complicated industry, and for my own mental health I just kind of don’t think about it, because nine times out of 10 it doesn’t happen. You can make a pilot for something and it won’t happen. So never say never — there have been some signs that have looked promising, but I have no control over it. It is definitely better for me if I put that out of my mind until it happens, or definitively doesn’t happen.” (Watch the full answer here, from the 29:25 mark.)
Worth noting
Adaptation delays are the rule, not the exception, for queer rom-com bestsellers: Red, White & Royal Blue took four years to get from page to screen, and Heated Rivalry took about two. If Boyfriend Material follows a similar path, don’t expect an announcement any time soon, Hall’s own “don’t think about it” approach is probably the healthiest way to watch this one too. In the meantime, the full London Calling trilogy is out now, along with the Material World spin-off, if you need something to hold you over.