From Wattpad to Hollywood: Seven Books that Started as Fanfiction

“Fanfiction” What does that make you think of? Unoriginality? Low quality writing? All fanfiction is just bad writing, made by people who weren’t “good enough” for real books, right? You would be surprised to know just how much popular media actually started out as fanfiction, despite how the medium is often looked down upon for the aforementioned reasons.

Being based on existing media, you wouldn’t be wrong to think that fanfiction is unoriginal, right? You could even argue that because of the lack of standardised measure of quality, fanfiction is inherently of a lower quality than, say, published material. 

However, fanfiction is actually very original because the author only uses existing characters and premises in the similar way that published authors use archetypes, just to a further extent. Not to mention, if fanfiction isn’t considered “original”, then comics aren’t either because basically everything in modern day comics is built off existing characters and plots. Why should it be different for fanfiction? While there is no quality requirement, a lot of fanfiction is really good because a fanfiction author isn't limited to the requirements of a publisher, or forced to write in a way that caters to specific audiences, and so fanfiction is often even better than canon. Not to mention, you would be surprised by how many pieces of popular media actually originate from fanfiction.

Ever heard of Heated Rivalry, the sports romance starring Connor Storie and Hudson Williams that exploded in popularity recently? You probably know that it’s based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers sequel of the same name, but did you know that Game Changers started out as Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes fanfiction? A lot of popular media has its roots in fanfiction, and the following are just some examples. Sometimes the changes are a find/replace, but other times entire plotlines are cut or rewritten to distinguish it from the original fanfiction.

Game Changers by Rachel Reid

The original version of Game Changers on Archive Of Our Own focused on New York Admirals team captain, Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, falling in love with smoothie shop barista and History major Bucky Barnes. Reid eventually took Game Changers off of Archive Of Our Own and published it as a novel in 2017, focusing on Scott Hunter and Kip Grady, who were based on Rogers and Barnes. Reid alleges that the original version of Game Changers wasn’t a Stucky fanfiction, but became one since she thought works on AO3 had to be fanfiction. Personally, I think that’s Reid embracing Game Changers’ origin as fanfiction but also burying its origin as Stucky fanfiction, likely due to the negative stereotypes around fanfiction.

His Royal Secret by Lilah Pace

Lilah Pace’s His Royal Secret is fanfiction of Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) from X-Men: First Class. It was originally published on Archive Of Our Own as a Royalty AU (An Alternate Universe where the characters are royalty), and focused on James, Prince Of Wales (Charles Xavier) falling in love with Jewish journalist Denjamin Dahan (Erik Lehnsherr). To be honest, who wouldn’t ship Cherik after watching First Class?

Alchemised by SenLinYu

SenLinYu’s 2025 novel, Alchemised, was based on their Dramione (Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger) and The Handmaid’s Tale Alternate Universe fanfiction, Manacled, first published on Archive Of Our Own. It was set in a canon divergence (same as the existing story until a certain point) after the events of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, where the other two protagonists are murdered, and only Hermione survives. Believe it or not, Alchemised was being sold at the book fair in the LRC a handful of weeks ago. Seeing Alchemised of all books was personally the best part of the book fair (and funnily enough it was right next to the Harry Potter boxset), because next to your run of the mill romantasy was something that started out as fanfiction.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James is one of the most famous examples of fanfiction that became published media. It started out as fanfiction of Stephenie Meyer’s vampire romance series, Twilight (and looking at the premise it is rather obvious) on Fanfiction.net, one of the big three of fanfiction websites. James first wrote the fanfiction in 2009, and starting in 2011, published it in three installments as Fifty Shades of Grey and its two sequels.

After by Anna Todd

After by Anna Todd started out as self-insert fanfiction of the band One Direction on (sigh) Wattpad, with the character of Tessa Young being based on Todd, and the male love interest, Hardin Scott, being based on Harry Styles. The fanfiction was converted into a non-One Direction novel and published in 2014. It was followed by three sequels: After We Collided, After We Fell, After Ever Happy, and also a prequel (unsurprisingly titled) Before. The book also spawned a five-movie franchise starring Josephine Langford as Tessa Young, and Hero Fiennes Tiffin as Hardin Scott. The final film, After Everything (2023) was the only one in the series to not be based on a book.

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series, first published in 2007 after Clare spent years writing Harry Potter fanfiction on Livejournal, started out as Draco Malfoy/Ginny Weasley fanfiction. When published, the novels focused on Clarissa Fray (Ginny) and Jonathan Herondale (Draco)  in a world where Draco was redeemed after the events of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood was Reylo (Rey/Kylo Ren) fanfiction on Archive Of Our Own, focusing on Olive (Rey), a student at Stanford University in love with biology professor Adam Carlsen (Kylo Ren/Ben Skywalker; named after Kylo Ren actor, Adam Driver). The most hilarious part of The Love Hypothesis isn’t in the book nor its roots, but in the upcoming film adaptation, which stars Rey actor Daisy Ridley’s husband, Tom Bateman as the male protagonist, Adam Carlsen. 

In conclusion, a lot of popular (and beloved) media actually have their roots in fanfiction, showcasing why negative assumptions about fanfiction’s originality and quality are wrong, because fanfiction, while it does have flaws, is genuinely amazing. Why write off an entire category of literature just because they build off existing fictional worlds? That, and the fact that your favourite book, movie, or show, might be based on fanfiction.