1923 Star Brandon Sklenar & Blake Lively Are Starring In A Movie Together

Collen Hoover has found her Atlas. After swooning Yellowstone fans as Spencer Dutton throughout the entire first season of 1923, Brandon Sklenar will now star alongside Blake Lively in the film adaptation of Hoover’s best-selling romance novel It Ends With Us. Sklenar will star as Atlas Corrigan, Lily Bloom’s childhood friend and first love. Lively will portray Lily and Justin Baldoni will play neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid.

“When this project came along I wasn’t aware of this book or the tremendous impact it has had on women all over the world in helping them to have the strength to change their lives,” Sklenar wrote on Instagram in a post announcing his new role. “This is something very personal to me. The amount of women I’ve known who have been victims of abuse is staggering. It is our intention that this film continues to spread the vital message of this book; for women to feel empowered and men to be better. I’m honored to be a part of it. Thank you Sony. Thank you Justin. Thank you Colleen Hoover.”

Published in 2016, It Ends With Us follows college graduate Lily Bloom as starts her new life in Boston and grieves the death of her father, who was abusive towards her mother. In Boston, she meets an attractive neurosurgeon named Ryle and sparks fly between the two. Lily and Ryle’s relationship, however, begins to mirror her parents’ in upsetting ways as her old fame and first love, Atlas, comes back into the picture.

In a 2016 interview with the New York Daily News, Hoover said It Ends With Us follows “was by far the hardest book I’ve ever written” as it’s loosely based on her mother and father’s relationship. “This story was inspired by events in my life, but mostly from events in my mother’s life. It was very important to me, for that reason, to do her story justice,” she said at the time.

Hoover announced Lively’s casting as Lily and Baldoni’s casting as Ryle back in January. “Our Lily is going to be played by Blake Lively. Blake Lively, y’all. She’s my dream Lily,” adding that she thought Baldoni “had what it takes to play” Ryle. “So we have our Ryle and our Lily,” Hoover shared with fans earlier this year.

As for Sklenar’s casting as Atlas, Hoover shared an excited Instagram post announcing the news. “They announced Atlas! Cannot wait for this. Loving the cast so far. Feels like a dream,” she wrote.

A release date for It Ends With Us has not yet been announced, but some outlets have reported a 2024 premiere could be likely. Until then, you’ll have plenty of time to read the sequel to It Ends With Us, Hoover’s October 2022 title, It Starts With Us.