Justin Baldoni On Directing ‘It Ends With Us’ Sequel: “There Are Better People For That One, I Think Blake Lively’s Ready To Direct”

Justin Baldoni wants to pass on the It Ends With Us directing torch to his co-star Blake Lively.

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Amid rumored behind-the-scenes drama between the cast and Baldoni, the star and director of the Colleen Hoover novel is distancing himself from directing a sequel.

“I think there are better people for that one,” the Jane the Virgin alum told Entertainment Tonight about directing a film sequel. “I think Blake Lively’s ready to direct. That’s what I think.”

It Ends With Us is an adaptation of the 2016 Colleen Hoover novel of the same name. The film, directed by Baldoni from a screenplay by Christy Hall, follows Lively’s Lily Bloom, a recent college graduate who moves to Boston to start a new chapter in her life. When Lily meets Baldoni’s Ryle Kincaid, a neurosurgeon finishing his residency there, the two gravitate toward each other.

Although Ryle doesn’t want a relationship, his attraction to Lily makes her the exception to his rule. Their relationship is threatened when Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan (played by Brandon Sklenar), returns to her life.

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Previews for It Ends With Us have banked the film $7M in the U.S. with an estimated $40M+ opening weekend. The drama has been banned in Qatar due to kissing scenes , and rumors about behind-the-scenes drama have taken over social media chatter.

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Although Baldoni is the director and star of the film, there are no photos of him with his co-stars at the premiere, such as Lively, Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate, and Isabela Ferrer. This has driven social media users to speculate about a possible feud among the cast.

At the film’s premiere, Baldoni told ET , “This isn’t my night— this is a night for all the women who we made this movie for. This is a night for Blake, this is a night for Colleen. I’m just so grateful that we’re here, five years in the making.”

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