Despite It Ends With Us being a box office success, a sequel may be off the table due to the highly publicized issues between its leading actors.
It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover’s controversial novel adaptation, was set to dethroneDeadpool & Wolverineat the box office thanks to an explosion of popularity of the source material on bookTikTokand the casting ofGossip GirlalumniBlake Lively.
While many fans hoped an adaptation of the follow up novel — It Starts With Us — would be green lit the massive success of its predecessor, any hopes of a sequel have been dashed due to intensecast drama.
It all began during the premiere of It Ends With Us where director and lead actor Justin Baldoni was not photographed with any of the cast. The drama was compounded by the revelation that no one in the cast except for comedian Hasan Minhaj followed the actor on Instagram.
It was also revealed that Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, had a hand in rewriting one of the movie’s most pivotal love scenes, which is speculated to have put a wedge between Lively and Baldoni according to Variety.
And the rift may have become too large to make a follow-up movie as an insider sourcetoldVariety, “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.”
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Baldoni has not been shy about his desire to step away from the director’s chair for the project,tellingEntertainment Tonight, “I think Blake Lively is ready to direct. That’s what I think.”
However, even if Lively and the rest of the cast are on board to make a sequel to Hoover’s work, they have a huge hurdle to jump over as Baldoni and his production studio, Wayfarer, own the rights to both novels.
Kayla Harrington was a TV & Movies Writer on Dexerto’s US team, specializing in The Boys, The Walking Dead, House of the Dragon, Marvel and Star Wars. She also has bylines at Mashable, BuzzFeed, and The Mary Sue.
