Back in 2018, A Simple Favor did moderately well, and over the years—bolstered by streaming—it became a cult classic. This led to Amazon and Lionsgate greenlighting a sequel, which was filmed last year. Based on when it was filmed, I expected A Simple Favor 2 to be a summer-ish 2025 release and never thought twice about it. But ever since Blake Lively got meangirled last summer, and since the revelations in her labor complaint against Justin Baldoni, people have been trying to cast Lively in a feud with her Simple Favor co-star, Anna Kendrick.
I think this is because some people want to paint Lively as a girl without girlfriends, or a non-girl’s girl, but in reality, we don’t know. All we know from the evidence available to our own eyes is that Lively and Kendrick seemed to get along during the Simple Favor press tour back in 2018. Could they hate each other? Sure! But I find it much more likely that they worked together effectively, got along well enough, but maybe didn’t become super best friends because most people who work on movies together don’t. Movie sets are workplaces, in the course of our lives, we work with a lot of people we like well enough but don’t become super best friends with every one of them. Why is this so hard for people to understand about actors? Why do co-stars have to be super best friends every time?
Despite all the evidence that Lively is/was the victim of a coordinated smear campaign, some people are really trying to cast her as the ultimate villainess, including some dipsh-t on Twitter who insists that A Simple Favor 2 has been “shelved” by Amazon because Lively is “refus[ing] to promote the film” which is heightening “tension” with Kendrick. You can read that nonsense here, or you can just read director Paul Feig’s direct response:

Rather than just admit that he either bit on bad info or totally made it up, this loser pressed Feig about the lack of release date for the sequel. Feig, displaying far more patience than I would have in such a situation, replied that they are only just completing post-production—on schedule—and expect to release the film summer-ish:

Again, this is the timeline I always expected based on the film filming in late spring/early summer 2024. Yes, films can complete post-production faster, such as A Complete Unknown racing to make the 2024 awards season, but typically, a studio film will take about a year to release from the time of physical production. When I see a film is shooting in May, like A Simple Favor 2 was last year, I expect to see it around the following summer, unless it looks like an awards season contender, in which case, it could be held for the fall festivals. There are a lot of moving parts in film distribution, but generally I’d say give it a full twelve months from the time physical production is completed before you start worrying. We’re not in the worry zone for A Simple Favor 2.
But this isn’t really about that film or Amazon’s release strategy. It’s about stirring the pot against Blake Lively, and how many people still won’t admit something inorganic happened to her last summer. I have seen some people post to the effect of “I can’t believe I fell for that”, but I am still seeing a LOT of “actually here’s why Blake Lively is still bad” posts. Just say you hate women and move on! Other than that, accept that Blake Lively isn’t to blame for everything. Movies take a long time to make, a year between production and release is totally normal. I hope A Simple Favor 2 is good, I look forward to seeing a trailer, Paul Feig is FAR more patient than me, and not everything is Blake Lively’s fault.