As It Ends With Us sails toward a strong opening weekend at the box office, the movie is facing unexpected — and likely unwanted — attention on social media. TikTok has been flooded with speculation about a rift between star-producer Blake Lively and her co-star Justin Baldoni, who also directed the adaptation of Colleen Hoover‘s beloved book.
Not since Don’t Worry Darling (remember spit-gate?), or maybe Madame Web, have social media users been so dedicated to parsing a film’s press appearances like they are the Zapruder film.
Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that there was a fracture among the filmmakers in the post-production process, wherein two different cuts of the movie emerged.
The It Ends With Us sleuthing on TikTok stemmed from Baldoni’s notable absence from joint press events, the lack of group photos of Lively and Baldoni together at Tuesday’s New York premiere, and the fact that Lively, Hoover, nor the rest of the cast, follow Baldoni on Instagram (though he follows them). This raised eyebrows, as during the development of the movie, Hoover and Baldoni appeared together on each other’s Instagrams multiple times.
Social media users also began speculating that Lively brought in her husband, Ryan Reynolds, to help take over creative control of the film. This theory was stoked when Lively revealed at the film’s world premiere that Reynolds wrote a key rooftop scene toward the beginning of the movie. “We help each other. He works on everything I do. I work on everything he does. So his wins, his celebrations are mine and mine are his,” she said. The film has a script from Christy Hall.
Reynolds did write a large chunk of dialogue for the scene, multiple insiders tell THR, but not the entire scene. Beyond that, he would have had no time to focus on his wife’s film since he and director Shawn Levy were working 24/7 on Deadpool & Wolverine from the time they were able to resume production in early November 2023 after the SAG-AFTRA strike — and through the laborious post-production process before embarking on a global publicity tour.
Lively, however, did have a strong say in the film’s creative direction as she was also a producer on the feature on top of being its star. That seemed to extend to having the power to make her own version of the movie. According to multiple sources, Lively commissioned a cut of the movie from editor Shane Reid, who was an editor on Deadpool & Wolverine, and who cut the Lively-directed music video for Taylor Swift’s “I Bet You Think About Me.” It’s unclear if any of this cut was ultimately used in the final project, which was credited to editors Oona Flaherty and Robb Sullivan. One insider played down any friction, noting that it is not uncommon for a film to have several cuts emerge during post, adding that the team was in agreement on the final cut.
Reps for Lively and Baldoni did not respond to requests for comment.
The filmmaker has acknowledged Lively’s creative contribution in interviews (though not going as far as to discuss competing cuts of the movie). He has also said that he took a step back at times and let the women on set take charge, given that the film is told from a woman’s perspective and focuses on the sensitive issue of domestic violence.
As for the future, Hoover has published a sequel, the 2022 novel It Starts with Us. Baldoni is non-committal if he would direct another film in the franchise, but his character is a key figure in the sequel. It’s unclear if the studio would be able to get the band back together for another go-around.
In the end, the chatter around It Ends with Us could potentially go away once the film opens. Unlike Don’t Worry Darling and Madame Web, it’s expected to be a financial success that will bring in $23 million or more this weekend — a solid number for a $25 million budgeted picture. And if presales are any indication, it could come in notably higher.
—Aaron Couch contributed to this story.