It Ends With Us is unlikely to get a sequel thanks to the ongoing feud between director Justin Baldoni and lead actress Blake Lively.
Adapted from a Colleen Hoover novel, the sequel to the hit film has already been written, with It Starts With Us being published in 2022. However, due to the very public feud between Lively and Baldoni, it looks like that sequel won’t be made any time soon.
The film has been plagued with rumours of tensions between Baldoni and the cast, first sparking when the director was not photographed with them at the film’s premiere on August 6. Baldoni also did not introduce the film, and no other cast member follows him on Instagram except for comedian Hasan Minhaj (Baldoni’s on-screen brother-in-law).
However, Variety also reports that the feud escalated due to Lively’s admission that husband Ryan Reynolds wrote a key scene in the final cut of the film. On the red carpet for the premiere, Lively told E! News: “The iconic rooftop scene, my husband actually wrote it. Nobody knows that, but you now.”
Baldoni allegedly only came to learn of Reynolds’ involvement through Lively’s red carpet interview, as he apparently thought that scene was ad libbed by Lively.
According to Variety, a source “familiar with the situation” told the publication: “This is uncharted territory, and nobody has any idea of what a sequel could look like. There’s probably no world where these two will work together again.”
Though neither Baldoni or Lively have made reference to their reported fight, multiple sources have told Variety that the “bad blood between the two is very real and the relationship may not be salvageable.” No source could articulate “any legitimate transgressions” committed by either Baldoni or Lively.
The publicity surrounding It Ends With Us has also been controversial due to what fans have perceived as Lively’s “tone-deaf” approach to the film’s press tour. Lively has received criticism for promoting her themed cocktail drinks, one of which is called “Ryle You Wait”, which is named after the abusive character in the film.
In the wake of Lively’s behaviour, a resurfaced interview promoting the 2016 Woody Allen film Café Society has gone viral. When interviewer Kjersti Flaa began the interview by congratulating the actress on her “little bump”, referring to her second pregnancy with husband Ryan Reynolds, Lively sarcastically responded with: “Congrats on your little bump.”
In other news, Lively and Reynolds recently became the first married couple to top the box office since Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, thanks to the success of It Ends With Us and Deadpool & Wolverine.