Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel It Ends with Us got a movie adaptation of the same name. Generally, it is tricky to reimagine the entire book on screen and not just the production, the cast also has to live up to the expectation of the readers.
It Ends with Us movie deviated from the fact, at least in the casting department as the reader failed to imagine Lily Bloom’s character being played by Blake Lively. Fans of the book have taken to social media to reflect on the casting issue they believe to be inappropriate.
The Social Media Backlash on the Movie
Many fans are not happy with the casting choice of the movie. While the character Lily Bloom is a 23-year-old college graduate, the makers have cast 35-year-old Blake Lively. That’s 12 years gap as fans believe that is relatively obscure.
The complicated love triangle of Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni, 39), Atlas Corrigan, her first love (Brandon Sklenar, 32), and Lily revolves around the cycle of romance and abuse. Baldoni who is also set to direct the movie has not disclosed any reason for the fan speculated odd casting. But for the fans, it is pretty hard to digest the massive change.
There has been a massive overflow of social media responses on the issue, especially on Twitter and TikTok. While some have applauded the casting choice out of love for Lively, disagreement prevailed on the other side of the picture. One Twitter user wrote, “love blake lively but casting her as lily for it ends with us is quite possible the worst casting that’s ever been cast.” Some asked for age-appropriate choices.
“Blake lively being cast as lily bloom in it ends with us is confusing because the character is 23 in the book and blake is 12 years older ??? like could they not have got someone age appropriate.”
Certainly, the book has a massive following and the makers of the movie have failed to win their hearts with the casting. Fans have to wait for what is stored in the movie adaptation until its release.
Colleen Hoover Admits Massive Blunder
Recently, the author of the book, Colleen Hoover addressed the criticism the movie is facing. Appearing at Book Bonanza at the author’s annual book festival held in Grapevine, Texas, Hoover admitted her mistake.
“Back when I wrote ‘It Ends With Us,’ the new adult (genre) was very popular. You were writing college-age characters. That’s what I was contracted to do. I made Lily very young. I didn’t know that neurosurgeons went to school for 50 years. There’s not a 20-something neurosurgeon,” Hoover said.
She went on to add that the essence of aging the characters has come into prominence after the book went into the pre-production process.
“As I started making this movie, I’m like, we need to age them out, because I messed up. So that’s my fault,” she added.
The Amazon bestseller released in 2016 could not justify the age of the character to match the occupation mentioned, especially the neurosurgeon’s character. However, the book has also faced heavy critical backlash as many critics pointed out that the book glorified abuse.
As of yet, there is no date set for the release of the movie.
Source: CINEMABLEND.
