Taylor Swift tends to be rather noticeable in naming her songs’ muses. (Here’s searching at you, “Dear John” and “Hey Stephen.”) But she stored factors ambiguous for “Wildest Dreams,” a 1989 track initially launched in 2014. Even in the album booklet, the place Swift remaining codes for her every single song, she was imprecise. “He only observed her in his desires,” she wrote as the cipher for “Wildest Dreams.”

In a 2014 job interview with NPR, she added to the intrigue surrounding the track, detailing that the track describes her solution to associations normally without naming any particular men and women:

“That’s actually a definitely fantastic illustration of the way I go into associations now. If I meet somebody who I experience I have a link with, the to start with imagined I have is: ‘When this finishes, I hope it finishes very well. I hope you remember me nicely.’ Which is not just about anything close to the way I utilised to imagine about associations. It really is that realization that it can be the anomaly if a little something functions out it really is not a given.”

With out a clear rationalization from Swift, enthusiasts have created their own theories about the song’s inspiration. Some consider it is about Alexander Skarsgård, who labored with Swift on The Giver film. Many others feel it’s about Harry Models, who encouraged a good deal of other songs on the album. Yet another theory? The song may well be encouraged by well-known Hollywood few Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Here’s a full debrief on each and every theory about the inspo behind “Wildest Dreams.”

Alexander Skarsgård

Following Swift released the songs movie for “Wildest Goals,” supporters commenced speculating that the song could be about Skarsgård. In the new music video, which sparked controversy at the time, Swift requires on the position of a brunette actor who has an affair with her costar when onset in Africa.

To enthusiasts, this depiction appeared extremely identical to what could have occurred on the established of The Giver with costar Skarsgård. Swift wore a brunette wig for her position in the movie, and filming took put in Cape City, South Africa in 2013.

Some of the song’s lyrics also appear like they could be an ode to Skarsgård. In the track, Swift sings, “He’s so tall and handsome as hell / He’s so negative, but he does it so perfectly.” Thinking about Skarsgård is 6′4″, and greatest-regarded for enjoying the villainous vampire Eric on Genuine Blood, he definitely fits the invoice.

Harry Variations

A lot of of the tracks on 1989 are assumed to be about Models, whom Swift dated briefly more than the tumble of 2012 and the wintertime of 2013. Looking at Swift’s discography, admirers really much agree that “Style” and “Out of the Woods” ended up written about their partnership, but “Wildest Dreams” is a different track likely impressed by the former Just one Route singer.

There is the lyrical similarities: Styles is “so tall and handsome as hell,” like the song claims. Moreover, if you obtain into the principle that she wrote “I Knew You Have been Trouble” about him, he suits the “bad” boy label, much too.

But that is only the 50 percent of it. Admirers have pointed out that Styles’ unreleased song “Him” appears like a immediate reaction to Swift’s “Wildest Dreams.” In it, Types sings, “That nice costume in my Wildest Goals / Lipstick stains you remaining continue to on my sheets.” To evaluate, Swift’s “Wildest Dreams” lyrics go, “Say you may remember me / Standing in a good dress / Staring at the sunset, babe / Red lips and rosy cheeks.”

Styles’ unreleased song carries on, describing an ex who is a songwriter. “And I don’t want to listen to about him / In these tracks you go on to produce / I was with you when you wrote that line / It was me that you had on your thoughts.” It absolutely looks like he could be referencing Swift — and, more particularly, “Wildest Dreams.”

All in all, however, it does not audio like Designs would intellect considerably if the song was about him. “I feel it’s flattering,” he advised Howard Stern in March 2020, for every Billboard, when requested about getting the inspiration for Swift’s audio. “Even if the music isn’t that flattering, you even now devote time on it, and ultimately, making use of Taylor as an case in point, she’s a terrific songwriter.”

Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton

There could be some historic inspiration for “Wildest Goals,” far too — something that is evident in the song’s music video clip. Joseph Kahn, who directed it (together with some of Swift’s other well known MVs, including “Blank Space” and “Bad Blood”), discussed that the romance of Taylor and Burton served as inspiration for the movie.

“The video clip is based mostly on vintage Hollywood romances like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, as perfectly as classic motion pictures like The African Queen, Out of Africa and The English Affected person, to title a few,” he said in a assertion to Leisure Weekly in 2015.

It wouldn’t be the only time Swift took inspo from this few in her songwriting. In “Ready For It…?” on Standing, she sings, “And he can be my jailer, Burton to this Taylor / Each and every lover regarded in comparison is a failure.”