Picture a movie about a teenage boy coming of age. He deals with shifts in his friend group, bullying from his peers, and struggling with his identity. On top of this he’s in a secret online relationship with someone in his school, who he doesn’t know the true identity of. Doesn’t seem like anything super new, does it? Teen romance and coming of age stories are nothing new to the world of cinema. Hollywood has produced tons of stories with similar premises for decades. But that’s what the team behind upcoming movie Love, Simon are going for: a mainstream teen romance. Lead, Actor Nick Robinson, describes it as, “a story that people have seen before, but it has an unfamiliar twist to it.” This twist is something that a mainstream production company has never taken on before; the romance is between two boys. According to indiewire.com “major studios have long avoided putting a gay protagonist front and center. 20th Century Fox will finally buck the trend next year with Love, Simon.” The movies slogan is, “Everyone deserves a great love story” highlighting the fact that this is the kind of typical teen romance movie that members of the LGBTQ community have not gotten to see before.

The movie, which will come to theaters March 16th, is based off of the book Simon Vs The Homosapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli.  It follows the life of Simon Spier, and his friends, through their junior year of high school. Albertalli has warned that the movie goes in a different direction than the book at points, for example adding a new character, Ethan, played by Clark Moore. But she said she is happy with the changes made. The movie stars actor Nick Robinson (Simon Spier), best known for his roles in Jurassic World and Everything, Everything. It also stars Katherine Langford (Leah Burke), Keiyan Lonsdale (Bram Greenfield), Alexandra Shipp (Abby Suso), Logan Miller (Martin Addison), and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (Nick Eisner).

Recently, the first Love, Simon trailer has been released. The trailer has been met with excitement from many, getting about 3,000,000 views on the 20th Century Fox YouTube channel. Most of the cast hasn’t talked about the movie too much yet, but openly gay actor Keiynan Lonsdale explained it’s appeal on Instagram by saying, “I’ve never been more proud to be in a project, cause I know young Keiynan could’ve really used this film in his darkest times… but thankfully he made it through, and is now a part of telling a story that can help so many others.”  On social media, fans of the book have expressed similar sentiments. It is clear that many cannot wait for the movie’s release.