Despite the massive success of 2024’s It Ends With Us, the chances of a potential It Starts With Us sequel look surprisingly slim due to the behind-the-scenes drama between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.
What is the It Starts With Us update?
It Starts With Us is a 2022 romance novel by Colleen Hoover and serves as a sequel to her 2016 book, It Ends With Us. After the stellar run at the box office It Ends With Us has had — the film is projected to hit $300 million soon and has reportedly net Sony close to $30 million in profit — fans assumed a sequel was all but assured.
However, according to a recent report from Variety, the chances for a sequel look almost slim to none considering the apparent feud between Lively and Baldoni. Sources close to the situation even went as far as to say they don’t know if the two could ever work together going further.
“This is uncharted territory, and nobody has any idea of what a sequel could look like,” says a source familiar with the situation. “There’s probably no world where these two will work together again.”
While it’s unclear what exactly the issues are between Lively and Baldoni (who directed and starred in the film, and also optioned the rights to the film adaptation), things only seemed to have gotten worse over the past few weeks. At first, it began as rumors that the two didn’t like one another after Baldoni wasn’t photographed with the cast during the film’s New York premiere.
Then, fans online noticed that most of the cast of the film had unfollowed Baldoni on social media. Reports then surfaced of various issues, including alleged tension between Lively and Baldoni on set, issues with Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds working uncredited on the film, and more. Variety’s report notes that while neither has addressed things, the “bad blood is very real” between the two, although no one can point to exactly what has happened.
