The upcoming release of Matthew Vaughn’s “Argylle” has sparked a lot of theorizing. The film appears to centre around an author, named Elly Conway, who discovers that her spy novel is actually based on real world events. The movie is allegedly based on a novel by the same title, by a real woman named Elly Conway, that was released a few weeks ago. Conway is a nobody and nobody knows anything about her; other than that it’s incredibly strange to have a Hollywood movie made and ready to go before your first book is published. That has led to a lot of speculation towards the identity of the so-called Elly Conway.
Here are the three most discussed theories:
1. Elly Conway is Taylor Swift
It seems a ludicrous suggestion and one that is built purely based off of how ubiquitous Swift has become… but is it that crazy? Taylor Swift is everywhere, at the minute, and is breaking into every industry. She has already announced her intention to direct a feature film in the near future. Is it too crazy to suppose that she would want to write a novel?
There are some pieces of evidence to support this theory. The cat in all of the Argylle marketing is the same breed as one of Swift’s, with Swift being somebody who is very open about her love for cats. The Instagram account for Elly Conway was opened on December 13th – the birthday of Taylor Swift. Similarly, Elly Conway is the same name as a character from Neighbours, who apparently debuted on… December 13th.
Vaughn has denied Swift’s involvement, however. If she isn’t actually involved, then you have to give props to the marketing team; because those potential clues were surely not an accident, and were an attempt to get the Swifties intrigued. Hopefully, they don’t face too much of a backlash…
2. Elly Conway is JK Rowling
Now, if the marketing team have tricked Taylor Swift fans into going to see a movie made by JK Rowling… things may get ugly quickly.
The evidence for JK Rowling is less compelling than Taylor Swift, but there certainly is an evidence base. For starters, Vaughn has credited the idea of Argylle to a story involving JK Rowling. Vaughn says that the idea from the movie came from “…the idea of what would happen if a wizard went to J.K. Rowling in book three and said, ‘You know what? Wizards are real. Hogwarts is real. I’m real. I’m going show you what it’s really like,’ and going on an adventure.”
Rowling has written under pen-names in the past, including under the name Robert Galbraith. Given how much she has tarnished her reputation with younger audiences, it would make strategic sense for them to use a fake name to market this movie. It would be one of the most disgusting marketing moves of all time, but could you really put that past these people?
3. Elly Conway simply does not exist.
Or, at least, they’re not anybody we know.
The final and, perhaps, most likely theory is that Elly Conway is just a ghost-writer that Matthew Vaughn hired to write a novel as promotional material for the movie. I haven’t read the book, and don’t plan to – but it apparently isn’t related to the movie, and isn’t very good. It may, very well, be nothing more than a marketing tactic; designed to get people talking.
Who do you think Elly Conway really is? Let us know in the comments below.