Justin Baldoni is staying booked and busy amid the drama surrounding him and Blake Lively, his onscreen love interest in It Ends With Us, which he also directed.
Baldoni, 40, is set to follow up his role as an executive producer on the film — which hit theaters on August 9 — by executive producing several upcoming movies, including Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, Eleanor the Great. The film will follow June Squibb as 90-year-old Eleanor, who befriends a 19-year-old upon moving to New York City. The cast also includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Hecht and Erin Kellyman.
More of Baldoni’s upcoming producing credits include the documentary Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story, and the new movie Code 3 starring Rainn Wilson, Yvette Nicole Brown, Lil Rel Howery and Aimee Carrero.
His production company, Wayfarer Studios, was behind several 2024 film releases, including Ezra, A Nice Indian Boy, The Garfield Movie and It Ends With Us. The company’s next release, Will & Harper, hits Netflix on September 13 and follows Will Ferrell as he takes a 17-day road trip across the U.S. with his close friend of 30 years.
While Baldoni starred as Ryle in It Ends With Us and is most known for his role as Rafael on the Jane the Virgin, he does not have any future acting projects lined up, per his IMDb page. Similarly, no directing projects beyond It Ends With Us are publicly known.
Baldoni — who continues to cohost “The Man Enough Podcast” with Liz Plank and Jamey Heath — previously teased that he would not direct aa potential It Ends With Us sequel.
“I think there are better people for that one,” he told Entertainment Tonight at the film’s August 6 New York City premiere. “I think Blake Lively is ready to direct. That’s what I think.”
His comment came shortly before rumors spread of tension between him and the film’s main cast, after he did not appear alongside his costars in press interviews and did not pose for group photos at the NYC premiere. Social media sleuths also discovered that Lively, author Colleen Hoover and more of the movie’s cast unfollowed Baldoni on Instagram. Baldoni has since hired crisis PR manager Melissa Nathan.
Baldoni and Lively’s conflict apparently stemmed from having creative differences on set. “There were two camps on the film — team Blake and team Justin,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly. “This creative struggle set the tone for the negative experience behind the scenes and grew into them not speaking anymore.”
The Hollywood Reporter previously reported that Lively, 36, showed her preferred rough cut of the movie at a fan screening back in June. The insider told Us that Baldoni felt “hurt and sidelined” by creative choices Lively made without his consultation.
However, a second source told Us that “any changes or input by Blake was to create the best film possible and honor the book,” and that just because decisions were made without Baldoni’s input “does not mean [she went] behind his back.”
The first source went on to clarify that “at the end of the day, the version [of the film] in theaters is one that everyone is happy with.”
Lively, for her part, has received her own criticism from fans for supposedly not taking the film’s subject of domestic violence seriously enough in interviews and press. She has since shared domestic violence resources for fans via social media.
Neither Baldoni nor Lively have publicly addressed their alleged drama.
