Will One Direction Attend ‘After’ Movie Premiere? Author Anna Todd Reveals How She’d React

One Direction might’ve disbanded a few years ago, but their legacy continues to live on with their music, their fans and, now, a new film inspired by the group’s members.

Over five years ago, Anna Todd’s decision to combine her love of the boy band and writing led to her creating “After,” the One Direction fanfiction story she posted to online story-sharing platform Wattpad. It’s since been read over a billion times on the site and become a bestselling novel in its mainstream published format. It’s also been adapted into a 2019 Jenny Gage-directed movie, which will be distributed by Aviron Pictures and released next Friday.

While the story isn’t about a boy band and doesn’t use the exact names of the One Direction members, it does feature characters inspired by them all. The mysterious bad boy lead, Hardin (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), who begins an all-consuming college romance with naive Tessa (Josephine Langford), is loosely based on Harry Styles.

As for the rest of the guys, Zayn Malik’s Zed, Liam Payne’s Landon, Louis Tomlinson’ Logan and Niall Horan’s Nate. While the last two characters mentioned won’t be in this first “After” movie, Zed will be played by Samuel Larsen and Landon by Shane Paul McGhie.

With this worldwide phenomenon all stemming from the group, it begs the question: Will One Direction attend any of the “After” movie premieres?

“I don’t know,” Todd, who’s also a producer on the film, told International Business Times. “I feel like Aviron’s [reaching out to them], but they won’t tell me because I don’t want to know. Especially when it comes to One Direction, I don’t want to be the person asking, first of all. I feel like we’re beyond that to where… it needs to come from other channels.

“But I’m imagining that they are because they keep making jokes about it, and behind every joke is a little bit of truth. So, I’m like, ‘Just don’t tell me. Just keep me blinded. And, then, if one of them is there, cool, but I don’t wanna know.”

Though she’s sold millions of copies of her “After” novels and traveled the world to speak about them, Todd has still never met the boys who inspired it all. She’s been around them — like Payne at the “Fifty Shades Freed” premiere —but would always “just kind of move away” and never say anything.

This time, though, things would be different because it would be her own movie premiere.

“I think I would just say, ‘Thanks,’” Todd told IBT of how she’d react and what she’d say if One Direction members were at her movie event. “Like, literally, ‘Thank you.’ ‘Cause my entire life would’ve been different if it wasn’t for reading One Direction fanfiction. So, I think I would just say, ‘Thanks,’ and I don’t know what I would say after that, to be honest, but I would just say, ‘Thank you.’”

International Business Times reached out to Aviron and the management teams of the One Direction alums for comment but did not hear back before the time of publication.

It remains to be seen whether or not the singers hit up the “After” movie premiere, but at least Todd has her first words to them all planned out just in case. And even if they don’t attend the event, she knows fans will probably make sure they’re all well aware of the movie’s release.

When IBT mentioned how Afternators would likely tweet at all of the 1D members to let them know it’s “After” movie release day, she responded: “Seriously. I still get tweets like, ‘Do you think Harry knows about ‘After'?' I’m like, ‘Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.’ Couple of years ago, maybe not, but absolutely.”

They might not have spoken publicly about the novels and movie, but Todd said “in a live stream, they made a joke about how a fan got really rich off writing fanfiction, and I was like, ‘Are they talking about me? Are they talking about me?’”

Come April 12, when “After” arrives in theaters, she won’t have to wonder if people are talking about her, the movie and the novels (including the movie tie-in edition out now) that started it all because it’ll be pretty likely that they all are.