When my friends found out I was seeing Verity this week, I was honestly shocked at the number of people who reached out to me with the same question: “Is Taylor Swift’s ‘Patient Zero’ in the new movie?” I hadn’t seen this rumor right away when the new music video dropped for Swift’s single, so at first I was confused about what was going on. Then I got into the hype, and I needed to know the answer myself.
Let’s dive into the Swift rumors related to this book-to-screen adaptation, why they happened, and the movie itself.
Why Are Fans Asking About “Patient Zero”?
So, the proximity of the release of Swift’s single from Encore, “Patient Zero,” and Verity’s premiere on the 2026 movie schedule, and the fact that Dakota Johnson is in both, fueled this speculation. Then, the pop star’s music video was dropped at the VMAs on September 25, and the subject matter of it is eerily similar to the plot of Verity. That led to fans posting things like this on X:
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It’s kinda funny that dakota’s in the patient zero music video at the same time she’s promoting verity… where she’s ultimately telling the same exact story 😭😭😭😭
In “Patient Zero,” Taylor Swift plays a wife who was killed by her husband, and she’s warning his next partner about him. In Verity, Anne Hathaway’s Verity is incapacitated and seemingly evil, and Dakota Johnson’s character, Lowen, comes into the life of Verity’s husband, Jeremy (Josh Hartnett), to finish a book. However, as romantic feelings come into play, major twists and violent acts happen.
So, the parallels are paralleling, as many other fans pointed out on X. Plus Johnson’s involvement – especially since she plays the second woman in both projects – makes them undeniable. And chatter about whether “Patient Zero” was in Verity got so loud that it got to Anne Hathaway, who reacted to the speculation while chatting with SiriusXM:
She’s also so good at a surprise that when people were like, ‘Oh my God, is Patient Zero tied to Verity?’ I was like, I’m a producer on the movie, and I was like, ‘Is it?’ Oh my gosh! And so I wrote [producer Stacey Sher], like, the day of the premiere, and I was like ‘Is there something you need to tell me?’ And she’s like, ‘About what?’ And I’m like, ‘Patient Zero.’ And she wrote back, ‘What’s that?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, you’re good.’
All things considered, I do think it would have made sense for “Patient Zero” to be in Verity, and the reasons for that don’t end with what fans were focused on.
The It Ends With Us Reason This Actually Would Have Made Sense
Notably, Taylor Swift’s music was featured in a different Colleen Hoover adaptation, It Ends With Us. “My Tears Ricochet” was in the film starring Blake Lively. So, there is a precedent for her music being used in movies based on Hoover’s books.
Plus, she was very close with Lively at the time of the film’s release (rumors suggest they aren’t as tight now following the It Ends With Us legal battle between the actress and Justin Baldoni). And Swift is also good friends with Dakota Johnson, who is one of the leads of Verity.
All in all, it would not have been surprising if Swift’s “Patient Zero” was used in Verity. There were so many reasons to back it up.
So, after all that, is “Patient Zero” in Verity? No, it’s not. However, I kind of wish it was. Although, even though they’re not technically connected, the parallels are fun, and both projects are worth watching. To do just that, you can watch “Patient Zero” on YouTube, and you can catch Verity (which people have lots of feelings about) in theaters now.