“As soon as the key, don’t let the cat out of the bag.” That’s the tagline for Argylle, an upcoming spy thriller starring Dua Lipa as a femme fatale and Henry Cavill as a dashing detective. Directed by Matthew Vaughn, the film debuts February 2. And that line additionally serves as one thing of a thesis for these speculating that Taylor Swift is the mastermind behind this movie’s mysterious supply materials.

The film, written by Jason Fuchs (Surprise Lady), relies on a yet-to-be-published novel by writer Elly Conway. Conway can also be the principle character of the movie, performed by Bryce Dallas Howard. In an interview with Vainness Honest, Vaughn defined Argylle’s story-within-a-story conceit: Howard’s Conway, he stated, is “the J.Ok. Rowling of spy books. She’s agoraphobic. Her concept of a scorching date is staying at residence, writing extra of her e-book, together with her cat for firm. She’s not a sufferer, as a result of she’s actually profitable and actually humorous and actually sensible, however she has points.” Within the universe of the movie, Cavill and Lipa’s characters will not be “actual”—they’re fictional creations from the onscreen Conway’s new novel.

The humorous factor about all that is that there doesn’t appear to be a “actual” Elly Conway, both. There aren’t any images of Conway on the web, and her writer bio on the Penguin Random Home web site is suspiciously quick: “Elly Conway was born and raised in upstate New York. She wrote her first novel about Agent Argylle whereas working as a waitress in a late-night diner.” Each X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram include verified profiles below this title which have a smattering of posts, however there isn’t any method of validating who is definitely posting from both account. 

The Hollywood Reporter famous in September of 2022 that Apple shelled out a reported $200 million for rights to Argylle: A Novel, which is about to be revealed in January—a staggering price ticket for a first-time writer. However makes an attempt by the outlet to acquire an advance copy of the e-book or contact Conway’s representatives have been unsuccessful. A seek for her title yielded solely connections to a fictional character on the long-running Australian cleaning soap opera Neighbors, who made her first look on the sequence on December 13. That additionally occurs to be Swift’s birthday.

Particulars like these are why Swifties have begun theorizing that their favourite pop star truly wrote Argylle below a pseudonym. On October 22, TikTok customers like Jessica Lynn Slocum and Chloe (@chloeandpercy) started making their case for Swift: Bryce Dallas Howard shares a resemblance, they stated, to the a red-headed writer Swift performs on the finish of All Too Nicely: The Quick Movie. Swift additionally has a documented love of argyle clothes, which has made its method into her official merch. The movie’s advertising and marketing has featured a Scottish fold cat named Chip; Swift owns three felines of that breed—Meredith Gray, Olivia Benson, and Benjamin Button. And within the movie’s trailer, Elly Conway sports activities a cat provider backpack that’s very similar to Swift’s from the Netflix documentary Miss Americana.

There isn’t any precise proof to help that Swift wrote the novel, however some followers have been bolstered by her behavior of leaving Easter eggs and even utilizing a pseudonym up to now. Earlier than their cut up earlier this 12 months, actor Joe Alwyn co-wrote some tracks for Swift’s Folklore below the title “William Bowery;” William is the title of his composer great-grandfather, and the Bowery Lodge is the place the couple first met. Swift herself glided by Nils Sjborg to pen the Rihanna hit, “That is What You Got here For” with then-boyfriend Calvin Harris.

However both method, the official Argylle Twitter web page has seemingly taken discover of the hypothesis and determined to lean in—by tweeting lyrics from multiple Swift songs. Vainness Honest has reached out to Common Footage for remark.