Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni feud rumors heat up as they skip It Ends With Us promotion

As It Ends With Us heads toward a promising opening weekend at the box office, the film is attracting some unexpected — and likely unwelcome — attention on social media.

TikTok has become a hub of speculation about a possible rift between star-producer Blake Lively and her co-star Justin Baldoni, who also directed the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s popular book.

Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that tension arose during post-production, leading to the creation of two different cuts of the movie.

The TikTok speculation began when Baldoni was notably absent from joint press events, there were no group photos of Lively and Baldoni at the New York premiere on Tuesday, and Lively, Hoover, and the rest of the cast do not follow Baldoni on Instagram (though he follows them).

This was surprising because during the movie’s development, Hoover and Baldoni often appeared together on Instagram.

Social media users also started speculating that Blake Lively enlisted her husband, Ryan Reynolds, to take over some creative control of the film.

This theory gained traction when Lively disclosed at the film’s world premiere that Reynolds had written a significant rooftop scene near 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.

Multiple insiders confirmed to THR that Reynolds did write a significant portion of dialogue for the scene, but not the entire sequence.

Beyond that, he likely had no time to be deeply involved in his wife’s film, as he and director Shawn Levy were working non-stop on Deadpool & Wolverine after production resumed in early November 2023 following the SAG-AFTRA strike.

However, Lively did have considerable influence over the film’s creative direction, as she served as both a producer and the lead actress.

This influence reportedly extended to her having the authority to create her own version of the movie.

According to several sources, Lively commissioned editor Shane Reid, who worked on Deadpool & Wolverine and edited the Lively-directed Taylor Swift music video “I Bet You Think About Me,” to create a cut of the movie.

It remains unclear if any of this version was used in the final film, which credits editors Oona Flaherty and Robb Sullivan.

One insider downplayed any tension, noting that it’s common for multiple versions of a film to emerge during post-production, and emphasized that the team agreed on the final cut.

Looking ahead, Hoover has released a sequel, the 2022 novel It Starts with Us.

Baldoni is non-committal about directing another film in the franchise, but his character plays a central role in the sequel.

It’s uncertain whether the studio would be able to reunite the cast and crew for another installment.