Is the age of cheesy rom-coms dawning once again? The late 2000s saw the quiet death of the genre, alongside other mid-budget projects, in favor of MCU-sized blockbusters. There was the odd attempt to revive it here and there, but it seemed like Hollywood had turned its back on the good old fashioned romantic comedy.

In the 90s it was almost impossible to avoid the genre. The likes of My Big Fat GreekWedding, You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, Notting Hill, and even the later 2000s iterations like 27 Dresses, The Proposal, The Holiday, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days had an absolute chokehold on the box office. Then, poof. The reason? Money.

While romantic comedies didn’t disappoint at the ticket booth, they simply did not generate Marvel-sized revenue or Oscar buzz. Nancy Meyers, one of the legendary rom-com giants and the mind behind What Women Want and The Holiday, faults the superhero genre for the death of the mid-budget film industry. Hollywood was fixated on releasing blockbuster after blockbuster, even if the odd USD 100+ mn project struck out. And if they weren’t after the benjamins, they kept an eye out for award-worthy scripts.

Another factor may have more to do with stereotypes (and sexism). “Rom-com” became synonymous with “chick-flick,” which was only said in derision to dismiss the integrity of a movie. Actresses like Kate Hudson and Sandra Bullock found themselves pigeonholed within the genre, unable to book other roles. On the other hand, male rom-com veterans Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, and Matthew McConaughey were able to break away and pursue more creative endeavors.

Once people started to realize that tropes that make up the backbone of rom-coms didn’ttranslate well in real life, it was difficult to enjoy and romanticize men stalking women and manipulating them into a relationship, people falling for someone else’s fiance (or their fiance’s brother), and the moral of the story being that the missing thing in a woman’s life really was a man after all. Instead of reformulating rom-coms to bypass these tropes, Hollywood decided to deinvest in them altogether.

But we see a glimmer of hope in the closing distance, a chance that the classic romantic comedy will make a tasteful comeback — and it comes in the shape of 90s rom-com queen Meg Ryan.

Ryan will be starring alongside David Duchovny in What Happens Later. The plot of the film (watch trailer, runtime: 2:35) borrows from classic rom-com tropes of lost love, second chances, and most importantly: Being stuck somewhere together, unable to leave. (Incidentally, the last is how a lot of horror movies start too.) While stuck together in a snowed-in airport, ex-lovers Willa (Ryan) and Bill (Duchovny) conduct a post-mortem examination of their relationship.

Hindsight is 20/20, especially in the movie industry. Ryan told Entertainment Weekly that she’s using her comeback as a chance to explore the depth of the genre, using her directorial expertise to examine themes of aging and regret. Working with rom-com icon Nora Ephron on You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and When Harry Met Sally means Ryan knows which beats to play — and which to deflect.

According to Ryan, rom-coms are an “incredible delivery system to comment on the times,” and that’s what she says they’ve done with What Happens Later. While a rom-com given is that “the guy gets the girl,” Ryan says their movie leaves more space for questions and tension. “Will they be together? Will they not be together?” she asked EW. “[What Happens Later] sort of evolves the rom-com genre a little bit.”

Ryan partnered with novelist Sally Franson to develop the plot over several months. A big question they asked themselves was how the genre needed to evolve to shake off the cobwebs of badly aging clichés. Diversity has been a big buzzword as of late, and Ryan decided to test the waters to see if there was an appetite to see mature couples grasping at connection. The answer was a resounding yes, if the emergence and success of The Golden Bachelor is any indication.

But Hollywood’s reluctance to invest in rom-coms still meant that even Meg Ryan had to scramble to get a Meg Ryan rom-com greenlit. The film had a budget of a measly USD 3 mn, reportedly garnered only after a lot of called-in favors. They even had to forgo test screenings, meaning that Ryan is hinging the film’s success solely on her instincts.

With Ryan at the helm of this project, she may be able to steer the genre into its renaissance. By delivering the wholesome and reliable content audiences have been looking for in modern attempts while avoiding the pitfalls of yore, rom-coms might just get a happily ever after.

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