Why do people think Taylor Swift secretly wrote Henry Cavill’s new spy movie?

24.10.2023 - 14:03 / polygon.com / Henry Cavill / Calvin Harris / Taylor Swift / New

Argylle is an upcoming spy movie from Kingsman director Matthew Vaughn, starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Henry Cavill. It’s out in February and based on a forthcoming novel by debut author Elly Conway. And, oh yeah, a lot of people think that Elly Conway doesn’t exist and is actually the pen name of international pop superstar Taylor Swift.

You might be asking yourself:Where did this fan theory come from? Well, TikToker jessicalynnslocum posted a couple of videos explaining just why she, and many others in the Taylor Swift “clowning” community, are absolutely convinced that Elly Conway is secretly one of Taylor Swift’s pseudonyms. The theory is just plausible enough to take off on TikTok, as this wouldn’t be the first time Swift collaborated on a project under a fake name; she co-wrote the 2016 song “This Is What You Came For” with then-boyfriend Calvin Harris under the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg. The reasons for this Argylle fan theory are numerous, but a lot of them can be boiled down to the fact that no one knows who the hell Elly Conway is.

Making a whole movie or TV show based on a book that hasn’t come out yet isn’t common, but it isn’t unheard of. This season of American Horror Story, for instance, is based on a book that wasn’t out when the season was announced. What is a little more uncommon is having a fictional version of the author appear in the movie, especially given how little information there is about the author. But it could also be a Lemony Snicket sort of situation, where the “author” of the book is a character themselves, and the book is actually written by someone else (or a team of someone elses — ghostwriters are common in the publishing industry!).

And a lot of Taylor Swift fans are convinced that the someone else behind Elly Conway is Taylor Swift herself. After all, the singer is known for her Easter eggs, and fans latch onto the smallest details in hopes they will find all the clues and predict the star’s latest big announcement. This time around is no different, though let’s just say some of the theories are more compelling than others. (Polygon has also reached out to Penguin Random House for comment and will update this story when we hear back.)

The fictional version of Elly Conway as seen in the Argylletrailerhas red hair: Now, Swift is blond, but the version of her in the “All Too Well” short film — who is also an author — has red hair. I could maybe see this connection, especially since Swift directed the “All Too Well” film and is set to direct a feature for Searchlight Pictures. 6/10

In the movie, Elly Conway carries her cat around in a backpack similar to Taylor Swift’s: This is a quirky backpack and definitely idiosyncratic, though it’s not completely unique to