Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s It Ends With Us legal drama may be raging on as we get closer to their trial date, but author Colleen Hoover is moving forward with two of her novels having adaptations on the 2026 movie schedule. With the first of the two, Reminders Of Him, in theaters this weekend, she has weighed in on whether she thinks her It Ends With Us sequel could join upcoming book-to-screen adaptations next.
A few years after It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover decided to publish a follow-up called It Starts With Us about Lily and Atlas falling back in love after her divorce from Ryle. Here’s what the bestselling author has to say about it becoming a movie:
I wrote that book as a ‘thank you’ to readers. I don’t know that there’s enough story to make a film. ‘It Ends With Us’ was so impactful, and it was so well wrapped up in the first film. Of course, if they all came together and wanted to do it, I’m not going to talk anyone out of it. But when I wrote that one, it was never an intention to see it on film. I just wanted to see Atlas and Lily happy.
Per these comments from her interview with Variety, it sounds like fans shouldn’t hold their breath for an It Starts With Us adaptation anytime soon. As she shares, the book itself was written as a thanks to fans for giving her so much love for the initial story.
It Ends With Us is a personal story to Hoover that tracks Lily, a floral shop owner, as she experiences a relationship riddled with domestic violence and emotional abuse while dating a neurosurgeon named Ryle, which is based on Hoover’s own parents’ abusive marriage. After all the pain of the novel, It Starts With Us provides fans with a more hopeful romance story as Lily gets a second chance at a loving relationship after her traumatic experience with Ryle.
When It Ends With Us hit theaters in 2024, it was a big commercial success, earning $351 million worldwide against a reported production budget of $25 million. The movie being a win has been overshadowed as of late by co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni (the latter is also It Ends With Us’ director) being wrapped up with legal drama that continues to be going on over a year later. We don’t exactly expect Lively or Baldoni to sign on for an It Ends With Us sequel after what’s been going on either.
Hoover recently said that the It Ends With Us aftermath has been “unfortunate”, but it’s “getting easier” for her to “separate” the film, which she remains proud of, from all the noise that has surrounded the production. While we shouldn’t expect It Starts With Us, you can stream It Ends With Us with a Netflix subscription and see Hoover’s Reminders Of Him in theaters now, and Verity, out this fall.
