It's been eight years since Meg Ryan last starred in a movie, and even longer since she starred in a romantic comedy (rom-com).
The genre has become synonymous with Ryan's career, even though — as she stated in an interview with the Associated Press recently — she's done "roughly 40 movies and only seven of them were rom-coms".
What Happens Later is Ryan's long-awaited cinematic return to the genre that made her a movie star.
It's also dedicated to her long-time rom-com collaborator, writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron, who died in 2012 at the age of 71.
And Ryan's not just the lead, alongside David Duchovny, but also the director, and one of the screenwriters of the film that opens in United States (US) theatres this week.
Originally meant for worldwide release in October, the film was rescheduled due to the release of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie.
The plot reads like your typical rom-com set-up. Two ex-lovers, Willa (played by Ryan) and Bill (played by Duchovny) run into each other in an airport during the holiday season (cue romantic snow).
Both their flights get delayed, and they're forced to revisit their relationship and explore what went wrong.
In the film's trailer, they bicker, laugh, dance, and seemingly poke fun at the rom-com cliches that many would associate with Ryan's career in particular.
The trailer looks like it has all the essential ingredients, a recipe that film and television writer Cameron Williams said comes easily to Ryan.
He adds that her stereotype in the cinema landscape has, for a long time, been that of the "romantic comedy darling".
"That stereotype was very much established in the 1980s during her collaboration with Nora Ephron in When Harry Met Sally … in that film, she arrived on the scene after playing many supporting roles in her career and established herself as just a really talented, comedic actress."
So what has been Meg Ryan's impact on the rom-com genre? Let's look back.
When Ephron Met Ryan
"A lot of romantic comedies during that time were very conquest driven … and a lot of the time it was mainly from the male's point of view," Williams said.
According to him, by all accounts, the romantic comedies in the 1980s looked very different to the wave of cosy rom-coms we witnessed in the late 80s/early 90s.
That was mostly due to Nora Ephron's hit film, When Harry Met Sally, starring Ryan and Billy Crystal.
Released in 1989, it was the start of a film partnership between Ephron and Ryan that would cement Ryan as a rom-com movie star.
For the rom-com genre, it was a turning point.
"It was very much part of a wave of romantic comedies that we're like, 'We're going to show both sides of the relationship and we're going to understand both the female character and the male character … so you can understand what makes their relationship dynamite," Williams added.
The film is well-known for its New York setting, Autumn fashion, and a fake orgasm scene in a deli that goes down in movie history for this quote;
"I'll have what she's having."
It was the start of a trio of movies: When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and You've Got Mail, which would make Ephron and Ryan a powerful force in the rom-com genre.
Sleepless in Seattle
It was 1993, and Ephron united with Ryan once again for the romantic comedy film Sleepless in Seattle — joined by Tom Hanks, who would go on to cement his own role in the rom-com genre with Ryan by his side.
The film, written and directed by Ephron, had Ryan playing Annie Reed — a loveable reporter who is engaged but feels like there is something missing in her life.
After she watches the film An Affair to Remember she responds to a radio segment with a young child who is hoping to find his widowed father (Hanks) a new wife.
Hanks and Ryan don't get within hand-holding distance of each other until the final scene of the film (sorry, spoilers) and, in fact, they don't even kiss which is a rare feat in rom-com land.
The film was a commercial success for Ryan, Ephron, and Hanks — which doesn't surprise Williams.
"Meg Ryan is warm and approachable, but also from an audience point of view, it's really easy to project onto her and see yourself in her characters," he said
You've Got Mail
In a name perfect for the rom-com genre, Ryan played Kathleen Kelly in the 1998 hit film You've Got Mail — which reunited her with Ephron and her Sleepless in Seattle co-star, Hanks.
The film included email and chat rooms as the landscape for a serendipitous meet-cute — a reflection of the late 90s adjusting to life with the internet.
Hanks and Ryan's characters, Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly, are rival bookstore owners who don't realise they're also each other's online chat partner — both falling in love (of course).
The film was another commercial success for Ryan and Ephron, and would be their last romantic comedy together.
But it was not their last film together — that was the comedy-drama Hanging Up in 2000.
Has the rom-com's golden era passed?
As Ryan returns to the rom-com genre with What Happens Later opening in US theatres this week, Williams is adamant that the golden era of rom-coms is tightly connected to Ryan's presence on screen.
"I think you can draw a parallel between the rise and fall of the rom-com over time, and the trajectory of Meg Ryan's career," he said.
For many rom-com devotees, the Ephron-Ryan partnership was the genre's peak.
Since then, the romantic comedy has, according to many, taken a side step.
Big films like Barbie and Oppenheimer now dominate the landscape, and many wonder if the rom-com era will ever be as good as it was during the Ephron-Ryan years.
Williams said that big-budget films, like the ones we see from the Marvel universe, mean rom-coms are being made cheaper than ever.
"The romantic comedy became a comfort space for streaming services, especially Netflix, who churned out a lot of OK rom-coms, like To All The Boys I've Loved Before … I think once those films fell into the algorithm it has just seemed to become a content churn," he said.
So, will Meg Ryan's What Happens Later bring back the rom-com magic? Only time — and audiences — will tell.