I’m so excited to hear that SenLinYu’s *Alchemised* is going to be a movie! It’s incredible how far this story has come. I first discovered it as a *Harry Potter* fanfiction called “Manacaled” – it was a take on Hermione and Draco’s relationship, affectionately known as ‘Dramione’ by fans like me. It blew up on *Archive of Our Own*, racking up over 10 million reads, and then gained even more traction on TikTok’s #BookTok. Now, after being polished and published as *Alchemised*, it’s landed a seven-figure movie deal! It’s amazing to see a story that started as fanfiction get this kind of recognition.
For years, Hollywood has increasingly turned to online stories and fan-created works for inspiration. Here are five movies you might be surprised to learn started as fan fiction.
5) Red, White, and Royal Blue
Casey McQuiston’s popular romance novel, which later became a streaming hit, originally started as fanfiction. Interestingly, the story reportedly began as a reimagining of a relationship between actors Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield. McQuiston, a fanfiction writer themselves, used the common fanfiction trope of placing beloved characters in new situations. Though many fans might have loved to see Eisenberg and Garfield play the roles, Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine ultimately delivered a fantastic portrayal of the story’s enemies-to-lovers dynamic.
4) Wicked
While many people recently enjoyed the movie *Wicked*, which came from the popular Broadway musical, fewer know that the musical itself was originally based on a novel by Gregory Maguire, published three decades ago. Though the story has appeared in different forms, and Maguire’s book was a commercially published work, it can still be considered a type of fanfiction. Maguire greatly expanded on the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, exploring details that weren’t covered in the original *Wizard of Oz* books by Frank L. Baum.
3) After
The popular young adult romance *After*-about the relationship between good girl Tessa and bad boy Hardin-started in a surprising place. Author Anna Todd originally wrote it as fanfiction online, imagining a love story between a fictional character and Harry Styles of the band One Direction. The story became very popular on the writing platform Wattpad, which eventually led to a movie adaptation. The film was a financial success, earning $69 million despite only costing $14 million to make, and a sequel was produced, showing the story’s enduring appeal even after distancing itself from its original inspiration.
2) The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
The story behind the movie *The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones* is actually more scandalous than the plot of the film itself. Surprisingly, *The Mortal Instruments* started as fanfiction based on the *Harry Potter* series, imagining a romantic relationship between Ron and Ginny Weasley. In fact, it originally began as a story with incestuous themes.
When Cassandra Clare revised her story to appeal to publishers, she made the main characters, Clary and Jace, not actually related, though the hint of an inappropriate relationship still worried studio executives. Concerns were also raised by past accusations of plagiarism in Clare’s earlier fanfiction, which caused a lot of conflict among *Harry Potter* fans online. We’re hoping the new film, *Alchemised*, performs better in theaters, especially since its main characters have no family connection to each other.
1) Fifty Shades of Grey
Believe it or not, the popular romance novel *Fifty Shades of Grey* actually started as fanfiction based on the *Twilight* series – a love story originally featuring Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, not Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey. Author E.L. James initially published the story as “Master of the Universe” before revising it into the hugely successful series we know today. *Fifty Shades* is by far the most financially successful fanfiction adaptation, becoming a film trilogy that earned over a billion dollars worldwide and helped launch the careers of Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan.
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2025-09-24 23:17