A Simple Favor 2 Officially Moving Forward, Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick Returning

It's official. A sequel to 2018's A Simple Favor is in the works, eyeing a spring production start. According to The Hollywood Reporter, stars Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively and Henry Golding are all set to return as is filmmaker Paul Feig.  The film will be a co-production between Amazon MGM Studios and Lionsgate and will stream on Prime Video. Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Joshua Satine, Ian Ho, and Kelly McCormack are also set to reprise their roles from the first film. Jessica Sharzer is returning to write the sequel with contributions from Feig and Laeta Kalogridis.

A Simple Favor 2, which was first reported to be in development back in 2022, will see Stephanie Smothers (Kendrick) and Emily Nelson (Lively) head to the island of Capri for Emily's wedding, with the itinerary for the destination wedding — which is between Emily and a wealthy Italian businessman — will include murder and betrayal.

Fans of A Simple Favor have hoped for a sequel pretty much since the film debuted in 2018 and it's a film that Feig said in 2018 is one he's proud of and his "favorite movie" that he's made — one that he was hopeful more people would see once it hit streaming.

"I just want more people to see it!" Feige told Decider. "I'm so proud of it. In many ways, it's my favorite movie I've made. I was very happy with how well we did at the box office, but I'm greedy. I always want more, and I want more people to see it. I just want them to enjoy it. I always felt like this was a movie that a lot of people were going to catch up with once it got to streaming. So, I just really want people to enjoy it, and I hope they haven't heard any spoilers. Also, we didn't advertise the fact that it's also quite funny, darkly so, but still quite funny. You know, all my movies, I try to make them so that they're a lot of fun at the end of the day, even if they go dark or do other things. This is definitely one that's in a different genre than I normally do."

What is A Simple Favor About?

Released in 2018, in A Simple Favor, "Stephanie is a widowed, single mother who works as a vlogger in Connecticut. Her best friend, Emily, seems to have it all -- a successful career, a loving family, and a glamorous lifestyle. When Emily mysteriously disappears one day, Stephanie launches her own investigation by digging into her friend's past -- and finding a few surprises along the way." The film performed well at the box office and did well with critics. It currently is Certified Fresh with an 84-percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and has fared well with audiences as well, with a 73-percent audience score.

Previously, Kendrick teased the sequel and her character's development in it saying that "she's still Stephanie."

"I've actually read the script now … and it's so good," Kendrick said previously. She added that her character has "a little bit more savvy in her," but added, "she's still Stephanie at the end of the day."

Are you excited that A Simple Favor is getting a sequel? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.