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Harry Styles: Musician or Actor? Hear What the Fans Say

September 9, 2022

Fandom Dove Into Its First-Party Data to Find Out If The Pop Star Will Make A Successful Cross Over Into an Acting Career, Plus His Standing In the LGBTQ+ Community, and More!

Mega-Star Poised To Conquer Fall Film Festival Circuit with Don't Worry Darling and My Policeman

Fandom, the world's largest fan platform, is the home to the deepest library of information on anything and everything in pop culture - including what fans really think about Harry Styles' acting career. With the mega-famous musician's upcoming starring roles in Don't Worry Darling and My Policeman, poised to make their global debuts next month at the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals, respectively, as well as his journey into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Starfox in the forthcoming Eternals sequel, will Styles be truly embraced by fans and filmgoers as an actor? Fandom surveyed more than 3,000 fans, diving into its proprietary data across its 300 million monthly unique visitors and 40 million pages of content to find out directly from fans themselves what they think of Styles' career aspirations in Hollywood. The good news? We think he could be on to something.

KEY FINDING #1: According to fans, Harry Styles is the most-anticipated character to watch in the upcoming Eternals sequel!1

  • Styles ranks as the most-anticipated character to watch in the Eternals franchise, according to respondents, with 40% of those polled selecting Styles, followed by Gemma Chan (15%) and Angelina Jolie (12%)

  • When asked about level of fanship for Harry Styles, 48% stated that they were not fans, 29% said they were fans, and 23% were super fans

  • Finding out that Styles would be featured in Eternals 2 motivated 31% of respondents to be more likely to watch, while 40% said their likelihood would be about the same, with 20% less likely to watch, and 10% of those who weren't sure

KEY FINDING #2: Fans think Styles should continue to explore acting and not just stick with music - and they also think he's a fashion icon! Triple Threat anyone?1

  • Respondents described Styles as a musician first and foremost: 48% agreed with the statement that "Harry Styles is a musician."
    • Closely behind, 34% agreed that "Harry Styles is all three of the above: a musician, actor, and fashion icon"

    • Only 9% said he was an actor and musician, while only 6% said he was an actor, and only 3% said he was a fashion icon

  • An overwhelming majority of 70% said that Styles was most successful at creating music more than anything else, followed by acting (9%), fashion (4%), and 16% selected "other"

  • When asked if Styles should "stay in his land and focus only on music or continue to branch out and explore acting," 45% were neutral, 33% said he should branch out and explore acting, and 23% said he should focus on music

KEY FINDING #3: On a scale of 1 to 5, fans rated Styles squarely as an actor and would like to see him in Comedies, Dramas and Rom-Coms!1

  • Respondents were interested in watching Styles act in every genre: drama, comedy, action, fantasy, horror, romance
    • Comedy, drama, and romance were the most popular choices

  • On a scale from 1 to 5, with "5" being the best-possible actor, 43% of respondents gave Styles' acting a "3" rating:
    • 26% said he was either a "1" or a "2" on the scale

    • 31% said he was either a "4" or a "5" on the scale

KEY FINDING #4: With his upcoming role as a closeted gay man in My Policeman, fans embrace Styles as a positive image for the LGBTQ+ community. 2

  • With both upcoming films, Don't Worry Darling and My Policeman, making headlines for how they address sexuality, we polled fans to see if they thought Styles represents a positive role model for the LGBTQ+ community.
    • 53% of fans either strongly agree or somewhat agree that he promotes positive images in the LBGTQ+ community, with only 10% disagreeing on the subject.

KEY FINDING #5: More fans plan to see Don't Worry Darling than My Policeman.2

  • When asked which upcoming Styles film fans plan to watch, 33% chose Don't Worry Darling and 21% leaned toward My Policeman.

  • 45% were as of yet interested in seeing either

Harry Styles Wiki – Fun Facts:

  • Styles' individual wiki ranks #53 in music Wiki this year to date

  • For Wikis dedicated to specific artists, Styles ranks #21 - more popular than the One Direction Wiki, which stands at #34 among all music Wikis.

  • The Harry Styles Wiki sees huge traffic spikes alongside his music releases. For example, his Wiki spiked 600% over the weekend when music from his latest album had been leaked.

  • After his surprise cameo in Eternals, his character was the #2 most popular character on the Marvel Wiki, spiking 140% to 52K pageviews, beating out main characters from Eternals like Icarus, Ajak and Sersi.

Methodology: 1Fandom's robust, proprietary data with a site survey of 3,076 respondents via site intercept from August 19th to 20th; and 2a survey via The Fan Lab from August 25th to 26th.

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Press Contacts
Rachelle Savoia - (470) 306-1609 - rsavoia@fandom.com

Brenna Harran - (631) 902-9801 - bharran@fandom.com