Warning! This article contains spoilers for Another Simple Favor.Prime Video’s Another Simple Favor pulls viewers back into Emily and Stephanie’s twisted orbit, but a few familiar faces are missing this time around. The new movie, directed by Paul Feig and now available on streaming, brings back Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) and Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) for another gripping murder mystery, and they’re joined by several returning characters from the 2018 original. From Sean (Henry Golding) to Darren (Andrew Rannells), a good chunk of the cast from A Simple Favor returned for at least a brief appearance in the sequel.

However, there are a few notable figures who avoided the mayhem this time around. With Another Simple Favor trading American suburbia for the Italian coast, the story in Feig’s sequel goes bigger and bolder than before, necessitating a shift in the core cast. That’s also the case with the central mystery; with the drama shifting from Emily’s disappearance to a pair of shocking murders, there wasn’t room for every character in A Simple Favor to return. Still, several of them had the potential to enhance the sequel.

4

Beth

Played By Melissa O’Neil

Around the same time A Simple Favor premiered, ABC debuted a little police drama known as The Rookie. It’s there where Melissa O’Neil got her true breakout role as Officer Lucy Chen, but she also had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it part in Feig’s 2018 movie. She plays Beth, a TA working alongside Sean at the university, and appears in a grand total of three scenes, one of which doesn’t feature any lines of dialogue.

However, her minor role serves a purpose, as she’s heavily implied to be having an affair with Sean right around the time Emily is missing and he’s hooking up with Stephanie. This is never confirmed, and was likely only included to further cast suspicion on Sean, but A Simple Favor does make a point to draw attention to Beth on a few occasions. In a world where the little details and inconsistencies add up, this is notable.

Sure, there likely isn’t much Beth could’ve done in Another Simple Favor, but considering where Sean ends up, she would have been an interesting callback. Sean spends his brief screentime in the sequel drunk and bitterly fighting Emily, giving the impression he’s spent the five years since the original movie spiraling in a major way. A returning Beth could’ve added another layer to Sean’s story and perhaps given his death a touch more emotion. It also would’ve been nice to see O’Neil score a meatier role now that she has seven seasons and counting of The Rookie under her belt.

3

Dennis Nylon

Played By Rupert Friend

Though A Simple Favor intentionally keeps a great deal of Emily’s life a secret, there are a few glimpses into her glamorous world, particularly when it comes to her career. She works as the PR director for Dennis Nylon, a big name in the fashion world played by Rupert Friend (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Homeland). When Emily first goes missing, Stephanie begins investigating by digging into her friend’s workplace, which brings her into contact with Dennis.

Stephanie confronts Dennis at his office and inquires about Emily’s whereabouts, but he appears unbothered by the news that his employee has gone to Miami without telling him. This is quickly shown not to be the case, as, from afar, he’s then seen yelling at his subordinates and demanding answers about Emily’s trip. That, along with his presence at Emily’s funeral later on, casts him in a suspicious light, and Stephanie at one point believes him worthy of further investigation.

Despite that, however, Dennis soon disappears from A Simple Favor‘s plot, and he doesn’t return for the sequel. Since Emily went to prison and, presumably, no longer works for him, it isn’t very surprising that Dennis wouldn’t factor into Another Simple Favor, but he still could’ve appeared as an additional guest at Emily’s wedding. It would’ve tied Emily’s new life to her previous one, and it could’ve further explained her working dynamic with Dennis. Still, the sequel doesn’t suffer from avoiding Dennis’ presence.

2

Diana Hyland

Played By Linda Cardellini

Linda Cardellini’s Diana Hyland only has one scene in A Simple Favor, but she provides a major piece of the greater “who is Emily” puzzle. Her arrival is foreshadowed early on in the film, as Emily has one of Diana’s graphic paintings up on her wall. She tells Stephanie that the artist was obsessed with her, almost to the point of requiring a restraining order. Of course, like everything within the world of A Simple Favor, there’s a bit more to the story here.

A figure from Emily’s past, Diana is an artist who became enamored with Emily and viewed her as a muse. At the time, Emily went by Claudia, and Diana provided for her in several ways, namely by paying off her debts and helping her go to school. However, this connection hurt Diana’s career and, when Emily slipped away, she was left with nothing. Her bitterness toward Emily isn’t that dissimilar to how Sean feels in Another Simple Favor. Stephanie learns all this while digging into Emily’s disappearance, and it only further cements the fact that her supposed best friend has a history of lying about herself.

Diana doesn’t return for Another Simple Favor. Her knowing Emily as Claudia only reaffirms the notion that she is from a very different era of the woman’s life, and she has no place in Emily’s opulent new world. She likely wouldn’t want to be there anyway, considering how much she loathes Emily. Though it would’ve been quite dramatic if Diana had returned for the sequel, perhaps out of a desire to seek revenge, A Simple Favor had already exposed Emily’s biggest secrets, and there isn’t much she could’ve offered that would be particularly new.

1

Faith McLanden

Played By Lauren Peters & Blake Lively

No, you didn’t misremember A Simple Favor: Faith is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ by the end of the movie, and therefore shouldn’t have any reason to appear in the sequel. And yet, this is a franchise that thrives on shocking twists and their characters’ illicit histories, so one could argue there was space for Faith to return via flashbacks. In fact, it might’ve even made Another Simple Favor‘s biggest reveal even more impactful while serving as a sharp reminder of exactly where Emily came from.

Emily, whose birth name is Hope, killed Faith in the first film, and the second reveals that their triplet, Charity, is actually alive. It was previously ᴀssumed that Charity was stillborn, but she was instead raised by her aunt Linda (Allison Janney). Her arrival in Another Simple Favor is the key twist that pulls the whole plot together; not only does she kill Sean and Dante (Michele Morrone), she wishes to be reunited with her long-lost sister, who she views as her soulmate and an extension of who she is.

With so much of Another Simple Favor revolving around Emily’s relationship with one of her sisters, it would’ve made sense for Feig to include additional flashbacks to her past with Faith. Contrasting Emily’s dynamics with Charity and Faith could reinforce the horrifying realities of the McLanden family and further develop Lively’s enigmatic character. Of course, seeing as A Simple Favor gave an effective summary of Emily and Faith’s history, it’s also understandable why the sequel opted to leave the deceased triplet in the past.