Now, you might be looking at this story and thinking 'There’s no way the film It Ends With Us and the Yellowstone franchise could be connected.' Well, they don’t really have anything in common in terms of their stories. However, they do share a star in Brandon Sklenar. So, when the Blake Lively-led film premiered on the 2024 movie schedule, the Yellowstone prequel series 1923 used its connection to the actor who plays Atlas in the book-to-screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover's novel, to troll Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds.
For some context, on August 6, Ryan Reynolds released a funny interview with Sklenar where he talked about It Ends With Us and the 1923 star playing his wife’s love interest in it. The interview got hilariously awkward fast, and in the month since its release it’s accumulated 1.5 million views. So, the fact that the post below was uploaded on the same day seems to allude to the back-and-forth the two actors had about the film and Blake Lively.
With that said, and considering the caption of this post, let’s break down this Yellowstone and It Ends With Us connection a bit further. And buckle up, because I know a lot about this movie and I recently watched 1923.
Back in early 2023, Brandon Sklenar led the 1923 cast alongside Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. The series is a prequel to Yellowstone, and it follows the Dutton family in the 1920s, 100 years before the events of Taylor Sheridan’s flagship show. Sklenar plays Spencer Dutton, a war veteran and professional hunter who lives in Africa when we meet him.
In Season 1, he’s on a journey to get back to Montana, because the Duttons are at risk of losing their ranch. Overall, he’s driven, intuitive and can be violent. So, as the caption of this post alludes to, he’s not a character to mess with.
Spencer’s story is also very romantic as he falls in love with a British woman named Alex, and he’s fiercely protective of her – much like Atlas is with Lily in It Ends With Us. So, the show posting about how “somebody should probably warn” Rynolds about Spencer is fitting.
It’s worth noting that all this happened before the rumors about It Ends With Us drama surrounding Blake Lively and the film’s director Justin Baldoni started. Since then, Brandon Sklenar has spoken out about it, calling it all “disheartening.” He also explained that “what may or may not have happened behind the scenes does not and hopefully should not detract from what our intentions were in making this film.”
Drama aside, It Ends With Us’ reviews were fairly positive, and now there are questions about whether its sequel It Starts With Us will happen While Sklenar has said he'd be down to play Atlas again, at the moment, it’s unknown if a second film will be made. However, if Colleen Hoover’s second book about Lily is greenlit, we’ll be seeing more of Blake Lively and Brandon Sklenar, because Lily and Atlas are the main characters.
On the 1923 front, Sklenar is returning as Spencer Dutton for Season 2. They’re expected to go into production this year. So, hopefully, it will come back sometime in the next year, so we can see if Spencer makes it back to his family.
Overall, It Ends With Us and 1923 are the biggest projects Sklenar has been part of so far, and it’s fun that the Yellowstone series humorously acknowledged that by trolling Ryan Reynolds.
If you are looking to see Brandon Sklenar in either of these projects, you can still catch It Ends With Us in theaters and 1923 is available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription. Trust me, once you watch the Yellowstone spinoff you’ll likely agree that no one should mess with Spencer Dutton.
