It Ends with Us: Ending on Romance or Real-Life?

Sansara Nagpal

Get ready for some tea, because It Ends With Us has officially entered the chat—and it's causing quite the stir! Enter Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, the Hollywood stars chosen to play Lily and Ryle, and the internet has thoughts—and we are here to hear it!

Here’s the scoop: the moment this casting news dropped, fans were raising their eyebrows. Sure, Blake and Justin are gorgeous, but are they young enough? You heard that right! The tiktok fanbase of this novel is not convinced with the casting; Blake and Justin are actors in their late 30s and 40s and the young readers reading this assumed character who were in their 20s. But Justin and Blake are still amazing actors; are they giving the movie justice though? Today, one must be able to visualize the characters in their minds on the screen, and if the internet collectively agreed on younger actors, maybe this was inappropriate? Or perhaps when we imagine characters in our minds it is far too romanticized and their depiction was more realistic? All we know is that the young and muscular Atlas with dreamy blue eyes was not the same description as the movie star! There needs to be a line drawn between meeting the physical image of a character but also having actors capable to act out Colleen Hoover’s most complex characters.  

Moreover, pop culture feminists highlight the broader issue of entertainment media commodifying trauma for profit, which can trivialize the lived experiences of abuse survivors. They are calling out the movie’s promotion for focusing on the love triangle instead of the bigger, more serious conversation about intimate partner violence. 

But it doesn’t end there. Some critics are pointing to a larger issue in Hollywood—commodifying trauma for entertainment. Turning Lily’s story into a swoon-worthy flick could trivialize the real, lived experiences of abuse survivors. Yikes! The feminist crowd is all for calling out these kinds of oversights, and It Ends With Us is the latest battleground in the debate about how serious social issues like domestic violence get portrayed on-screen.

So, will It Ends With Us live up to its potential and keep it real, or will it fall into the same trap of glossed-over trauma for profit? Only time will tell, but one thing’s for sure—this movie has a lot of eyes on it, and not all of them are watching the romance.