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5th April 2024
01:24pm BST
It's been five years since Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick graced the big screen as Emily Nelson and Stephanie Smothers.
In 2018, the actresses joined forces for the investigative-backstabbing comedy thriller film.
Lively was pictured by The Daily Mail standing opposite Italian actor Michele Morrone, dressed in a wedding gown, as they appeared to act out a wedding ceremony in front of guests.
Next to them was Kendrick, who was photographed sporting a strapless dress, appearing to be serving as a bridesmaid to her co-star's character.
After the events of the prequel, viewers may be confused to see Kendrick's character play such an important role in Emily's wedding.
Before we look forward, let's look back.
Lively's character was unveiled as one part of a twin set, born under the name Faith, with her sister, Hope.
The twins, born into a strict household with a neurotic father, end up setting a section of their enormous house on fire, killing him.
When the story begins to garner attention from the local media and community, the girls split up, with plans to meet again in the future.
After Hope is a no-show, Faith decides to begin anew as Emily, a powerful publicity executive in Manhattan.
She marries her husband, Sean (Henry Goulding), a university professor, and welcomes a child, which leads to her meeting with Stephanie, a single mom with a parenting vlog whose child attends the same elementary school.
However, all is not as it seems.
While she and Sean appear to be a power couple, Emily alludes to money problems and their failure to sell their house, which would solve said money problems.
To continue living their lavish lifestyle, she convinces her husband to take out a $4 million life insurance policy on her and then disappears into thin air.
The perfect opportunity presents itself when her sister, Hope, who is now a drug addict, returns and blackmails Emily for a million dollars.
Emily, seizing the occasion, drowns her twin in a Michigan lake, and because she is her unknown but identical twin, the police find the body and assume it’s Emily, meaning her four-million-dollar payday is on the way.
Stephanie, who is sleuthing for the truth, begins having an affair with her 'widower' husband, much to her late friend's dismay, who watches from afar.
This is when the real double-crossing begins.
The pair meet at 'Emily's' grave, agreeing to a new plan that will see the twin admit that it was Hope who really died (of course, omitting the part where she was drowned by her sister) and justify her disappearance by labelling Sean as an abuser.
Stephanie agrees to the master plan as a rouse to get a secretly taped confession of her crimes and fake shoots Sean in front of her 'friend' to push this narrative even further.
Of course, Emily foresees this by cutting their mics in advance, organising a SWAT team to show up at her and Sean's unsellable home, and shooting her estranged husband for real this time, all while confessing to the murders.
Stephanie, ten steps ahead, live-streamed the entire encounter on her mommy-vlogger channel via a tiny camera on her chest, nailing Emily to the wall once and for all.
A Simple Favour ended with Stephanie continuing her mommy-vlog career, Sean (Henry Goulding) fleeing across the country, and Emily landing a 20-year prison sentence.
In addition to Lively and Kendrick reprising their leading roles, Goulding, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Joshua Satine, Ian Ho, and Kelly McCormack will all return for the sequel.
Deadline has also reported that Elena Sofia Ricci, Michele Morrone, Elizabeth Perkins, Alex Newell, Taylor Ortega, Lorenzo de Moor, and Aparna Nancherla would join the fold in undisclosed roles.
While the plot for the sequel to A Simple Favour remains relatively under wraps, it has been announced that the actresses' characters travel to Italy for Emily's wedding to a 'rich Italian businessman'.
"Along with the glamorous guests, expect murder and betrayal to RSVP for a wedding with more twists and turns than the road from the Marina Grande to the Capri town square," a press release read, per ET.
As with the prequel, A Simple Favour 2 will be directed by Paul Feig and will stream on Prime Video, but, as of now, the release date remains a mystery.
During an interview on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, Feig said:
“We kind of have a deal to do it, it’s just figuring out scheduling and everything. That’s the thing that rules Hollywood is schedules.
"Because now Blake is gonna have a baby and stuff. So, we’ll see. It’s gonna get made. It’s just not sure what the timeline is right now.”
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