Following the tremendous success of It Ends With Us, the first Colleen Hoover book to be adapted to the big screen, the question on many fans’ lips was whether there would be another one. Hoover has already published a sequel, It Starts With Us, and given that the movie made $180 million on a budget of $25 million, a sequel would seem like a no-brainer (it’s not the only one coming down the pike).
Unfortunately, according to reporting in The Hollywood Reporter, the sequel is going to face an uphill climb. That’s mainly because of the ongoing rift between star Blake Lively and co-star and director Justin Baldoni. Although the details of the bad blood are still unclear, both Lively and Baldoni’s characters appear in the sequel, and Baldoni has the rights to both the first book and its sequel, so the two would need to work together for any sequel to happen.
Baldoni said that there are currently no plans for a sequel, but also added that he believed Lively would be ready to step into the director’s chair.
The movie’s overwhelming financial success has not made Baldoni the talk of the town, at least not for the right reasons. The actor and director has been accused of fostering an uncomfortable environment on set, and Lively, meanwhile, has faced backlash over new and previous interviews in which she behaves inappropriately.
For now, then, a sequel is far from a sure thing, even though one might make sense on paper. If a sequel does move forward, it may not include all of the players that managed to make this first installment such a runaway success.
