The premiere of Blake Lively’s “Another Simple Favor” won’t be paused amid her ongoing legal war with “It Ends With Us” director and co-star Justin Baldoni.
The highly-anticipated sequel featuring Anna Kendrick will premiere at the 2025 South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, as the opening night debut on March 7.
The film’s world premiere date was announced on Tuesday, February 4, on SXSW’s Instagram page.
Sharing a photo from the film of Kendrick, 39, with co-star Andrew Rannells, 46, and the movie’s director Paul Feig, the caption read, “Announcing the World Premiere of Another Simple Favor, directed by @paulfeig as the Opening Night Film for the 2025 #SXSW Film & TV Festival.”
Lively was not included in the announcement picture.
Those not going to this year’s SXSW will have to wait nearly two additional months to watch the “A Simple Favor” sequel as it won’t be available to stream on Prime Video until May 1.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to be back at my favorite festival in the world where we successfully launched Bridesmaids and Spy, and I cannot begin to say how honored I am to have our film opening it all,” Feig shared in a statement.
“I’ve avoided making sequels to any of my films but these characters were just too much fun not to revisit,” he continued. “So to be able to have Anna, Blake, Henry, Andrew, Michele, Elizabeth, Alex and myself watch our film with the great SXSW audience is a bucket-list event I’ll be able to check off March 7 and move playing drums for Dwight Yoakum’s band up to the top slot.”
The news comes as Lively and Baldoni’s legal battle heats up.
Feig defended Lively, 37, after she filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, 41, accusing the “It Ends With Us” director of sexual harassment and orchestrating a public smear campaign against her — allegations he denied.
“I’ve now made two movies with Blake and all I can say is she’s one of the most professional, creative, collaborative, talented and kind people I’ve ever worked with,” Feig shared via X (formerly Twitter) on December 22. “She truly did not deserve any of this smear campaign against her. I think it’s awful she was put through this.”
Baldoni, in turn, filed a $400 million lawsuit against the actress and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for alleged defamation, civil extortion, false light invasion of privacy and more.
Lively’s lawyers denied Baldoni’s claims.
Feig also defended Lively amid rumors that the “A Simple Favor” sequel‘s release was delayed due to her ongoing legal mess.
“This is total BS. Sorry. The movie is finished and coming out soon. Don’t believe anything you read on social media these days,” the film’s director wrote on X January 10.
Kendrick squashed speculation about the rumored tension between her and Lively, too, telling People magazine in November 2024 that it was “lovely” reuniting with her co-star for the sequel to their 2018 hit.
“She lives on the East Coast, I live on the West Coast, so we don’t get to see each other often. But it was lovely, and I think that those characters have such weird chemistry that it’s so fun to just get the gang back together,” Kendrick shared at the time. “And it does feel a little bit like riding a bike.”
Lively and Baldoni’s trial has been scheduled for March 2026.
