\n<\/p>\n
The best argument against releasing a sequel to Blake Lively<\/strong> and Anna Kendrick<\/strong>‘s terrific 1028 thriller<\/a> A Simple Favor<\/em><\/a> is also the reason the movie is so hotly anticipated. How do you top the original film’s jaw-dropping twists and turns<\/a> (Incest! Pantsuits<\/a>! A shared Henry Golding<\/strong><\/a>!) without selling out its end-carded happy ending? Should director Paul Feig<\/strong> even try?<\/p>\n Sorry to those who prefer their favorites preferred in amber, because the answer to that last question is \u201cwell, he already did.\u201d Since 2022, Feig has been hard at work<\/a> on A Simple Favor 2,<\/em> with Jessica Sharzer<\/strong> back as screenwriter. Kendrick, now a lauded kingpin in her own right for assured directorial debut Woman of the Hour<\/em><\/a>, returned to play mommy vlogger Stephanie Smothers. Lively is also back as Emily Nelson, a sororicidal and generally toxic public relations exec.<\/p>\n Speaking of public relations, that’s arguably what Lively’s been up to in recent weeks. Just a few nights before Christmas, Blake Lively took over the news cycle<\/a> with a set of bombshell allegations against co-star\/director Justin Baldoni<\/strong> and the producers of It Ends With Us<\/em>, that drama-plagued<\/a> adaptation of Colleen Hoover<\/strong>‘s 2016 novel<\/a> about the cyclical nature of domestic violence.<\/p>\n