Justin Baldoni has filed a legal letter over an ‘inside joke’ Ryan Reynolds is accused of adding into Deadpool & Wolverine.
This all comes as a number of lawsuits have been made between Baldoni and Blake Lively following their summer film, It Ends With Us.
But it seems it doesn’t quite end with them, as the director’s attorney has accused his co-star’s husband of creating a character that parodied him.
The Marvel movie and romantic drama were filmed at similar times before their release last year. But It Ends With Us seemed to come with extra drama due to speculation of a rift between Baldoni and Lively.
Then, adding a bit of background to that, Lively sued her co-star, accusing him of sexual harassment and attempting to carry out a ‘social manipulation’ campaign against her.
Baldoni has denied all claims brought against him.
And on 7 January, his lawyer, Bryan Freedman, sent a litigation hold letter to Marvel president Kevin Feige and Disney CEO Bob Iger with the ‘anticipated claims’ against Reynolds, Lively, and others unnamed.
Per Variety, the letter reportedly calls on the studio to preserve ‘all relevant documents and data with regards to Baldoni’.
While It Ends With Us was released by Sony, the actor’s team reckon Reynolds was taking the p**s out of him during a sequence in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Apparently, that was in the form of when the Marvel star appears as ‘Nicepool’, the foolish alternate of the hero.
The legal letter calls for ‘any and all documents relating to the development of the Nicepool character’ to be preserved as well as ‘communications relating to the development, writing, and filming of storylines and scenes featuring Nicepool’. And it also calls for to ‘all documents relating to or reflecting a deliberate attempt to mock, harass, ridicule, intimidate, or bully Baldoni through the character of Nicepool’ to be retained.
This minor character comes out with lines like ‘Where in God’s name is the intimacy coordinator?!’ as well as complimenting Ladypool for her appearance despite having had a baby. And this female alternate was of course played by Lively.
She accused Baldoni of fat-shaming her post-partum body on the set of their movie, and when Deadpool calls out Nicepool’s misogyny, he responds: “It’s okay, I identify as a feminist.”
This could be another nod to the actor, as during both the creation and marketing of his film, he would talk about being a feminist and an ally to women.
During an appearance on The Megyn Kelly show, Freedman said: “What Ryan Reynolds has seemingly done is use his power and influence … on Deadpool and to make fun of Justin Baldoni.”
He added of the Nicepool sequence: “What I make of that is that if your wife is sexually harassed, you don’t make fun of Justin Baldoni; you don’t make fun of the situation – you take it very seriously.”
LADbible has contacted Disney, Baldoni and Lively’s reps for comment.
