Blake Lively’s It Ends With Us co-star Brandon Sklenar has landed a big role in the upcoming action thriller F.A.S.T. from Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan.
The actor, 34 – who has previously worked with Sheridan on the Paramount+ series 1923 – will portray a leading character in the Warner Bros. movie but exact details are not yet known.
The premise follows, ‘a former special forces commando, down on his luck after he returns Stateside, who is tapped by the DEA to lead a black op strike team against CIA-protected drug dealers in his town,’ per The Hollywood Reporter.
Sheridan penned the script for F.A.S.T. and Ben Richardson will make his feature directorial debut on the project – which is set to hit theaters on April 23, 2027.
Richardson has directed episodes for Sheridan’s critically acclaimed shows including Yellowstone and its spinoff prequel 1923.
Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group’s Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy issued a statement as the film enters its production stages.
‘The breadth of Taylor Sheridan’s body of work is simply astounding and unparalleled in sheer excellence and consistent quality and we could not be more honored to be making this film with him,’ they expressed.
‘With the hugely talent director Ben Richardson behind the camera and the exceptional producing talents of Heyday Films and Bosque Ranch, we are thrilled to have such an incredible creative team bringing F.A.S.T. to the big screen.’
Sheridan had written the script before his time working on Yellowstone for Paramount+ and at the time wanted Chris Pratt to star in the project, per THR.
After being put on the backburner for some years, the movie was picked up once again by Warner Bros.
Due to Taylor’s deal with Paramount+, talks are still underway to iron out the details to have the showrunner officially on board for F.A.S.T.
Sklenar himself has been keeping busy and recently appeared in the mystery thriller titled Drop – which was released last month in April.
He is also set to star in the anticipated film The Housemaid that has a star-studded cast including Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Michele Morrone, Megan Ferguson and Ellen Tamaki.
The psychological thriller is based on the 2022 novel of the same name which was written by Freida McFadden.
The premise of the movie – which is set to release later this year on Christmas Day – follows, ‘a struggling woman who is happy to start over as a housemaid for an affluent, elite couple,’ per IMDB.
Paul Feig is set to direct – and the filmmaker recently worked with Blake Lively on the sequel Another Simple Favor which hit Amazon Prime Video earlier this month.
Blake as well as her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni have been embroiled in ongoing legal drama since last year – which Sklenar has mainly stayed out of.
A few months earlier in March, Brandon fueled speculation that he was siding with Baldoni when he wore a floral brooch at the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscars party.
It also happened to be the same one Justin had worn the previous year at the It Ends With Us premiere.
However, Sklenar soon broke his silence on the matter and told People that the incident was simply a coincidence.
When questioned if there was some sort of hidden meaning behind the brooch, he replied, ‘Honestly, no. I wish I could say there was.
‘That was a total happenstance. I woke up in the morning and saw an article and I was like, “Oh, d**n.” I literally had no idea.’
And during an interview on CBS Mornings in February, the topic of the lawsuit was brought up and he explained that he was not taking any sides.
Instead, he brought the focus back to It Ends With Us – which followed Lively’s character of Lily Bloom and her experience with domestic abuse.
‘I just want people to remember why we made the movie in the first place and what it stands for, and just keeping the focus on that.’
Brandon added, ‘Like that movie meant so much to me, and I have someone very, very close to me in my life who’s gone through what Lily’s going through for a long time, and I’ve been on the frontlines of helping her navigate that space.’
Blake and Justin’s court date amid the publicized lawsuit is set to kick off next year in March 2026.
Most recently, Grammy winner Taylor Swift has been swept up in the drama when she was subpoenaed by Baldoni’s team last week.
DailyMail.com also exclusively revealed that Blake allegedly threatened to leak embarrassing private texts from bestie Taylor unless the pop star agreed to publicly back the actress in her feud with Justin.
The explosive revelation appears in a legal letter filed Wednesday by Baldoni’s lawyers, in response to Lively’s request to quash their subpoena to the singer.
The court filing alleges that the Gossip Girl alum had tried to pressure Swift to issue a public statement in support of her and urged her to delete text messages between them during her escalating legal battle with Baldoni.
The latest twist sheds further light on the collapse of Lively and Swift’s once-close friendship – which has gone cold amid the actress’s high-stakes lawsuit involving the actor.
Since then, both Swift and Lively have been subpoenaed for communications about the case, despite the superstar’s attempts to distance herself from the furor.
In the letter to the judge obtained by DailyMail.com, Baldoni’s legal team, led by Bryan Freedman, hit back at Lively’s ‘wrong’ claims that the proposed subpoena to Swift ‘seeks irrelevant documents.’
Freedman argued that it aims to obtain information ‘relating to witness tampering and evidence spoliation’ – specifically that Lively had attempted ‘coerce’ Swift into publicly siding with her.
According to the letter, Baldoni’s attorneys received information that ‘(i) Ms. Lively requested that Taylor Swift delete their text messages’ – which, according to inside sources, may have contained details from over a decade of friendship, relationships, and private confidences.
It also claims Lively’s lawyer Michael Gottlieb had contacted Swift’s attorney and demanded ‘that Ms. Swift release a statement of support for Ms. Lively, intimating that, if Ms. Swift refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature in Ms. Lively’s possession would be released.’
In response, Swift’s reps purportedly addressed Lively’s ‘inappropriate and apparently extortionate threats in at least one written communication’ sent to Gottlieb, according to Freedman.
‘It is those communications that [Baldoni’s team] seeks to obtain by way of subpoena, as they would evidence an attempt to intimidate and coerce a percipient witness in this litigation’, the letter states.
Swift, whose hit song ‘My Tears Ricochet’ was featured on the soundtrack of the 2024 film It Ends With Us, was pulled into the rollercoaster saga earlier this year when Baldoni filed a $400million countersuit accusing Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds of defamation.
Explosives text messages from Baldoni’s complaint revealed Lively had referred to the superstar singer and her husband, as ‘my dragons’ in a bid to intimidate him over ill-fated flick It Ends With Us.
Since then, Swift has reportedly been trying to distance herself from the scandal as well as her friendship with Lively.
Those efforts have included icing Lively out of her inner circle while boyfriend Travis Kelce has unfollowed Reynolds on Instagram.
The new revelation marks yet another bombshell twist in a case that has dragged in multiple A-listers and resulted in some legal zingers – among them Lively’s dragon claim.
Attention has now turned to who else could be subpoenaed in the case, with Reynolds odds-on to have his communications scrutinized by Baldoni’s team.
Last week, speculation arose around Swift and Reynolds’ friend Hugh Jackman with reports saying that they too are facing a legal grilling.
Swift is reportedly furious over being dragged into the case and has not been photographed with Lively for months.