The Fault in Our Stars movie poster just came out, and bears a tagline that has some people up in arms.

'One Sick Love Story' Tagline Sparks Controversy

In the poster, Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, playing cancer stricken teens Hazel and Gus, lie in the grass with their heads touching. Atop the intimate pose of the lovelorn couple is the movie title – and the controversial movie tagline “one sick love story.” Some find the phrase problematic, an ill-conceived joke about cancer and the romance between two sick individuals.

The Fault in Our Stars is a filmic adaptation of author John Green’s book of the same name. Green, who knows the characters and the tone of the story better than anyone, finds the tagline far from offensive. In fact, Green thinks it’s perfectly suitable, organic even, to the story he wanted to tell.

'The Fault In Our Stars' Author Defends Tagline

"I like the tag line. I found it dark and angry in the same way that Hazel is (at least at times) dark and angry in her humor,” Green wrote on Tumblr after admitting he wasn’t the one to scribe the four-word phrase. “I mostly wanted something that said, ‘This is hopefully not going to be a gauzy, sentimental love story that romanticizes illness and further spreads the lie that the only reason sick people exist is so that healthy people can learn lessons.' But that's not a very good tag line."

“I like the tag line because it says, literally, the sick can also have love stories. Love and joy and romance are not just things reserved for the well,” he added. “What matters most to me is that you're seeing Shailene as Hazel and Ansel as Gus for the first time, and it seems like people are (mostly) pretty happy with what they're seeing, which is what I was anxious about."

Green also pointed out in his post an aspect of the poster that’s getting far less attention than the tagline that he feels is of more importance – Hazel’s cannula. As the author points out, evidence of a disability or illness upon a movie poster is nearly “unprecedented” and should be seen as something of a victory.

The Fault in Our Stars was adapted for the big screen from Green’s novel by screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. It was directed by Josh Boone (Stuck in Love). Along with Woodley and Elgort, it stars Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe and Mike Birbiglia.

The Fault in Our Stars is slated to hit theaters June 6, 2014.

– Chelsea Regan

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