A24 UK Options “Boyfriend Material” for TV

Fans of queer romance just got another reason to celebrate, as indie entertainment company Deadline announced today that A24 will be making a TV series based on Alexis Hall’s Boyfriend Material.

Boyfriend Material tells the story of Luc O’Donnell, the unwillingly famous son of rock star parents. When his father starts making a comeback, Luc gets thrust even further in the public eye and ends up causing a bit of a minor scandal. To clean up his image, he needs to be seen in a nice, normal relationship: enter barrister and ethical vegetarian Oliver Blackwood. The two agree to fake date until the furor has settled down. And we all know what fake dating means…

The first book in a trilogy, Boyfriend Material was originally published in 2020. Sequel Husband Material followed in 2022, and the third book, Father Material, is set to release in June. (I am very behind on book news, so this is the first I’m hearing about the third book! Let me add it to my exhaustive TBR list.)

A24 is behind some of the buzziest films of the past decade, including Moonlight, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and I Saw the TV Glow. Now, the UK division has acquired the rights to Boyfriend Material with the intent to bring it to television. I don’t want to say this is because of the continuing success and popularity of Heated Rivalry, but I’m not not saying that.

I am super excited for this news. I’ve read both Boyfriend Material and Husband Material and devoured both (although admittedly preferred the first one). Plus, if you know me, or have been around long enough and read enough of my articles, you’ll know that fake dating is my jam, which is one of the main reasons I was such a fan of the book.

And as an avid watcher of Thai BLs, I have been waiting for the west to catch up. There really isn’t that much queer media over here – at least, not the kind of media that I like. Western queer shows are usually sad and mopey, with tragic endings. The fun ones are canceled after one season, like Dead Boy Detectives. I like romances and happy endings, and we just don’t get many of those. There’s a reason I’ve basically only watched BLs for the past few years.

I was hoping that the explosive popularity of Heated Rivalry would finally convince studios to invest in more queer romance stories. (I’m still lowkey afraid that the lesson they’ll take away from that is that we want more hockey stories, which… not unless they’re queer.) With the news that they’re making an animated series of The House in the Cerulean Sea, the recent news that Fake Dates and Mooncakes has been optioned, and now this news about Boyfriend Material, is Hollywood at last cluing in that queer people exist and watch TV?

As with those other projects, it’s still woefully early in the process. But considering I’ve been immersed almost exclusively in Asian media for the past six years, I don’t even know who I should be looking at for potential cast members. So tell me, who would you want to see as Luc and Oliver?

(Also, the rapid-fire succession of queer romances getting optioned is insane. Anyone have bets as to what the next one will be? Maybe a sapphic one this time?)

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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