“The movie is finished and…”: Rumor ‘A Simple Favor 2’ Is Shelved Amid Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni Lawsuit Is False, Director Responds

SUMMARY

• Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick are all set to return in the upcoming sequel for Paul Feig's A Simple Favor.
• Lively has been in the headlines recently due to the s*xual misconduct complaint she filed on actor Justin Baldoni.
• Amidst rumors of the scandal causing A Simple Favor 2 to be canceled, director Feig assured fans that it would be coming out.

Blake Lively will be returning to star with Anna Kendrick in the upcoming film A Simple Favor 2. The sequel to her 2018 black comedy, it sees many of the cast members return for another mystery, shifting them to Italy this time around. Director Paul Feig is also returning to helm the project.

Lively has been making headlines for the past few weeks after her s*xual misconduct scandal allegations against former co-star Justin Baldoni has heated up. Amidst rumors of A Simple Favor 2 getting canceled due to Lively’s involvement in the scandal, Paul Feig assured fans that the film would be coming out.

A Simple Favor 2 director Paul Feig dismisses rumors of the Blake Lively starrer being canceled

Blake Lively in It Ends With Us | Credits: Sony Pictures

Blake Lively was last seen in 2024’s romance drama It Ends With Us, whose controversies seem to be mounting every day. The actress filed a complaint against her co-star and director Justin Baldoni, accusing him of s*xual misconduct and orchestrating an online smear campaign that seems to be escalating now after Baldoni’s response (via Deadline).

Lively was the subject of a massive controversy during the promotional tour for It Ends With Us, where her positioning of the film which dealt with serious themes like domestic abuse and the cycle of abuse as a romantic comedy, and taking over the tour to promote her own brands. Since the complaint, however, Lively has received immense support.

A still from A Simple Favor | Credits: Lionsgate

Lively is set to star in the upcoming film A Simple Favor 2. While there were reportedly rumors about the film being shelved amidst Blake Lively’s scandal, director Paul Feig clarified the rumors in an X (formerly Twitter) post, where he squashed the reports of shelving.

Feig was one of the many industry folks who publicly supported Lively when she filed the complaint against Baldoni (via THR).

Paul Feig’s A Simple Favor 2 will be a direct streaming release on Amazon Prime Video

Blake Lively in A Simple Favor | Credits: Lionsgate

The Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick starring black comedy A Simple Favor was a runaway hit upon release back in 2018. The film follows a Vlogger who gets involved in a murder mystery and proceeds to solve it. Directed by Paul Feig, the film was a commercial success, earning $97 million against a $20 million budget (via Box Office Mojo).

Despite its commercial performance, Feig revealed that the sequel was going to be a direct streaming release after Amazon-MGM Studios came in to produce the film. Talking about the decision to make it a streaming release, Feig said (via The Wrap),

You go where they want to make it, you know? And Amazon really wanted this. It was great. We had a few other suitors for it, but they just really got it, and they were willing to put the money in that we needed to do it and do it the way we wanted to do it.

He also mentioned that the film’s setting being international required a larger budget which Amazon was willing to provide.

A Simple Favor is available to stream on Netflix.

Written by Nishanth A

Articles Published: 1728

Nishanth A is a Media, English and Psychology graduate from Bangalore. He is an avid DC fanboy and loves the films of Christopher Nolan. He has published over 1,000 articles on FandomWire. When he's not fixating on the entire filmography of a director, he tries to write and direct films.