Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling is a psychological thriller that has been attracting national attention from the moment it was announced in July 2019. A highly anticipated release, the film premiered in theaters on September 23 and was very popular due to the all-star cast, behind the scenes drama, and eerie trailers. Over the course of production, this film has been making headlines because of drama surrounding casting changes, reported on-set quarreling, and romances between the cast and crew. 

    Drama in Don’t Worry Darling started to emerge when Harry Styles replaced the film’s previous lead, Shia LaBeof, on September 11, 2020. At the time, it was reported that LaBeof had scheduling conflicts with filming. However on December 24 that same year, it was announced that the film’s director, Olivia Wilde, had fired him due to “poor behavior.” According to Variety, insiders close to Don’t Worry Darling said LaBeof “exhibited poor behavior and his style clashed with the cast and crew, including Wilde, who ultimately fired him.”

            The controversy continued on January 5th, 2021, when Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde were photographed holding hands at a wedding. This began a rumor about a potential blossoming romance between the two. Many fans of Styles began posting and commenting their opinions of this relationship. Others were quick to judge Wilde of being unprofessional, even though the rumors were never confirmed. Overall, it reignited the buzz surrounding the film well before the movie was even set to premiere. 

           A flurry of subsequent issues made it worse: Wilde was handed custody papers in the middle of a presentation at Comic-con, detailed descriptions of Lebeof’s poor behavior on set were released, and members of the production team spoke about on-set troubles as “anonymous sources.” When the film premiered, many viewers eagerly rushed to their local movie theaters to see what the end result of all of the commotion and controversy had come out to be. At the box office, the movie made $19.2 million estimated ticket sales at North American cinemas in the first weekend. The film then collected an additional $10.8 million in overseas cinemas. 

    Do you think the film was a success? Do you think the controversy makes the movie more appealing?