He’s a pop star with several high profile acting roles under his belt, but Harry Styles is having an impact on the film world in more ways than one.

Fan fiction based on the popstar and his former bandmates in One Direction is being turned into films, while fans are convinced the stories have inspired a long line of rom coms.

Anna Todd’s New York Times bestselling After series, based on One Direction, has been adapted into five feature-length films released between April 2019 and September 2023.

The final addition of After Everything – which made $10.6 million in box office sales after its limited theatrical release on September 13 – proves the phenomenal power behind the Harry Styles and 1D fanbase.

Meanwhile, fans are convinced – despite denials by the author of the book it’s based on – that Anne Hathaway‘s upcoming movie, The Idea of You, about a 40-year-old single mother who falls for a younger man who’s the lead singer in a ban, in inspired by Harry Styles too.

Harry Styles fans have proven they are yet a force to be reckoned with – as they’ve successfully managed to have fanfiction based on the popstar turned into a film franchise (Photo: Getty)

The After series kicked off in 2013, when super fan Anna Todd, 34, from Ohio, wrote an 80-chapter book on the social writing app Wattpad.

The young adult romance novel is based on a Washington State freshman named Tessa, who falls in love with a punk ‘Harry Styles,’ with the two ending up in a tumultuous relationship.

In the original chapters – which are still available to read on Wattpad – Harry, Liam, Zayn, Louis, and Niall’s real names are used for the characters.

However, for legal reasons, the names had to be changed when the stories were published, and so the main character was changed from Harry to Hardin.

Within a month of publishing the content online, the story racked up 544 million views.

By 2014, author Todd had landed an official publishing deal with Simon & Schuster, with the novels subsequently released later that year.

Spying the opportunity to expand on its soaring popularity, Paramount Pictures acquired the screen rights in October 2014 to produce a movie adaptation of the first novel After.

It all started in 2013, when super fan Anna Todd (pictured), 34, from Ohio , U.S., wrote an 80-chapter book on the social writing app Wattpad

The young adult romance novel is based on a Washington State freshman named Tessa, who falls in love with a punk ‘Harry Styles,’ with the two ending up in a tumultuous relationship

After was released on April 12, 2019, starring Josephine Langford as Tessa Young and Hero Fiennes Tiffin (pictured) as Hardin Scott, with four consequent films adapted soon after

Following four years of production, After was finally released on April 12, 2019, starring Josephine Langford as Tessa Young and Hero Fiennes Tiffin as Hardin Scott.

Due to the movie’s commercial success – having collected some $30 million worldwide in box office sales – a sequel was planned with Tiffin and Langford cast to reprise their roles as Tessa and Hardin.

After We Collided was released on September 2020, with the success of the sequel leading to all books being turned into feature-length films, again starring Tiffin and Langford.

After We Fell was released in 2021, followed by After Ever Happy in 2022 and the final installment of After Everything in September 2023.

In May 2022, Harry Styles himself was interviewed on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show, in which the Watermelon Sugar crooner was asked if the series was based on him.

In a rather awkward response, Styles said: ‘I don’t know how much… I don’t know. I don’t really know.’

He added: ‘I don’t know if I can confirm. I’m not entirely educated on the origin of the script or anything… I’ve heard of it, yeah. But I don’t know in terms of… I’m not really sure.’

Fast forward to 2024, a romantic comedy starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine is set to be released in May, named The Idea of You.

After taking her daughter to Coachella, Sophie, 40, meets Hayes Campbell, the 24-year-old lead singer of a boyband called August Moon – and the pair begin a passionate affair

The Amazon-produced film is based on the novel of the same name by Robinne Lee, and focuses on  Sophie, a 40-year-old single mother whose husband left her for a younger woman.

After taking her daughter to Coachella, she meets Hayes Campbell, the 24-year-old lead singer of a boyband called August Moon. The pair begin a passionate affair but find they have to navigate the reality of their very different lives.

It’s no secret that Style’s dating history has involved relationships with women several years older than himself, such as with Olivia Wilde, who was 36 when Styles was 26, and Caroline Flack, who was 32 when she dated the then 17-year-old Styles.

However, author Lee denies her book is based on the As It Was singer, telling Vogue in 2020: ‘This was never supposed to be a book about Harry Styles, nor was it ever intended as a classic, fuzzy romance.

She added: ‘It was supposed to be a story about a woman approaching 40 and reclaiming her 𝑠e𝑥uality and rediscovering herself, just at the point that society traditionally writes women off as desirable and viable and whole.’