‘A Simple Favor 2’ Is a Go: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively Returning for Paul Feig Sequel

It’s time to raise an Aviation gin martini to toast Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively returning for another glamorous mystery with A Simple Favor 2 from director Paul Feig.

Amazon MGM Studios announced Wednesday that the sequel movie, which is a co-production with Lionsgate, is looking to begin shooting this spring and will stream on Prime Video. Feig is back to helm the follow-up to his 2018 dark comedy, with Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Joshua Satine, Ian Ho and Kelly McCormack all reprising their roles from the first feature.

Jessica Sharzer, who penned the initial movie, returned to write the sequel, with Feig and Laeta Kalogridis also contributing to the script. Sharzer’s screenplay for the original film was based on the 2017 novel of the same name by author Darcey Bell.

A Simple Favor 2 sees Stephanie Smothers (Kendrick) and Emily Nelson (Lively) heading to the island of Capri for Emily’s lavish wedding. The itinerary for the destination nuptials between Emily and a wealthy Italian businessman is set to include murder and betrayal.

Feig and Laura Fischer will produce A Simple Favor 2 for Feigco Entertainment, with Sharzer serving as executive producer. Development on the sequel was first reported in 2022.

Released by Lionsgate in September 2018, A Simple Favor earned $53 million at the domestic box office and collected $97 million globally. In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, critic Jon Frosch wrote at the time, “There are plum parts for Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, appealing stars whom Feig guides smoothly through the plot’s sudden swerves and swings.”

Kendrick appeared in this year’s Hulu film Self Reliance and is set to star in her feature directorial debut with Woman of the Hour hitting Netflix this fall. Lively stars opposite Justin Baldoni in Sony’s big-screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel It Ends With Us, hitting theaters in June. Feig, who directed the 2022 movie The School for Good and Evil for Netflix, has wrapped filming on Amazon’s action-comedy feature Grand Death Lotto starring John Cena, Awkwafina and Simu Liu.

Feig is represented by CAA, Shelter PR and Sloane Offer. Kendrick is repped by CAA, Range Media Partners, Initiative and Yorn Levine. Lively is repped by WME, Entertainment 360 and Sloane Offer.