A rift between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni is complicated by the director-star holding rights to ‘It Starts With Us.’

Under ordinary circumstances, a sequel to the female-focused drama It Ends With Us would be a no-brainer. The $25 million-budgeted Sony Pictures film has collected more than $180 million globally since opening Aug. 9, and author Colleen Hoover already published a best-selling sequel, the 2022 novel It Starts With Us. But the well-publicized rift between star-producer Blake Lively and director-star Justin Baldoni has observers now wondering whether a sequel is viable, at least with both of them involved.

Both Lively’s flower shop owner Lily and Baldoni’s abusive neurosurgeon Ryle are in the book sequel. Further complicating matters: Baldoni developed It Ends With Us from the ground up after acquiring the rights from Hoover five years ago via Wayfarer Studios, which he co-founded with billionaire Steve Sarowitz and runs with Jamey Heath.

Sources say Wayfarer has rights to the sequel It Starts With Us, which would mean Lively and Baldoni working together, even if Baldoni did not direct and his role was recast. Sony distributed It Ends With Us, and insiders tell The Hollywood Reporter that the studio also would have the right to distribute the sequel.

After the movie’s release, social media users dug up cringeworthy, lighthearted interview snippets from Lively and criticized her cross-promotion of her new hair-care line given the film’s domestic violence subject matter, while Baldoni has been accused of fostering an uncomfortable set that alienated Lively and the cast. One source notes that this rift dates back at least a year, with Lively not looking forward to returning to filming after production was paused during the writers and actors strike in 2023. (They saved their intimate scenes for post-strike.) After principal photography wrapped, the film underwent a week of reshoots, and competing cuts of the movie emerged, including one preferred by Lively, which is the cut that is in theaters, according to sources. Baldoni has said there are no formal plans for a sequel, though he did say on the press tour that he believed Lively was ready to direct it.

The drama doesn’t seem to have hurt the film. It fell a respectable 52 percent in its second weekend, with sources noting that included a sizable amount of repeat business, meaning fans are not turned off by the bad headlines. As for Sony, the studio signaled it is in Lively’s corner. On Aug. 14, as tensions online about the Baldoni-Lively rift showed no signs of slowing down, Sony Pictures Entertainment chair-CEO Tony Vinciquerra name-checked Lively, Hoover and the women who worked on the film. Notably absent from his public praise was Baldoni. Said the exec: “We love working with Blake, and we want to do 12 more movies with her.”

Whether one of those 12 movies will be It Starts With Us remains to be seen.