Justin Baldoni Isn’t Letting This ‘Deadpool’ Accusation Die

Baldoni's lawyer sent a litigation hold letter to Marvel and Disney, one week after claiming a deleted Deadpool & Wolverine scene is further evidence of Ryan Reynolds’ supposed wrath toward Baldoni.

By Audra Heinrichs | January 15, 2025 | 1:26pm

Photo: Getty Images Entertainment Latest

Justin Baldoni Isn’t Letting This ‘Deadpool’ Accusation Die

This week, Disney was officially pulled into the Justin Baldoni v. Blake Lively legal discourse.

On Tuesday, Variety reported that Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman sent a litigation hold letter to Marvel and Disney on January 7, 2025. According to the publication, the notice (addressed to Marvel president Kevin Feige, Disney CEO Bob Iger, and director Tim Miller) called on the studio to preserve all relevant documents and data with regard to his client.

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Why? Well, the letter comes just a week after Freedman claimed that a deleted scene in Deadpool & Wolverine (which was released in July) is further evidence of Reynolds’ supposed wrath toward Baldoni, as previously detailed in his lawsuit against the New York Times. In the scene Freedman’s referencing, Reynolds plays a character called “Nicepool,” the diametrical opposite of Deadpool, who’s canonically not nice. As the former, Reynolds has a man bun (a hairstyle Baldoni very notably wore until 2023) and carries on as a garden variety bad-faith male ally.

“Oh my goodness, wait til you’ve seen Ladypool,” Nicepool reportedly says of Lively’s character in the film. “She is gorgeous. She just had a baby too, and [you] can’t even tell.”

When Deadpool (who is also played by Reynolds, sans man bun) advises Nicepool that he isn’t “supposed to say that,” the former replies: “That’s OK. I identify as a feminist.” Nicepool then adds: “I’d be fighting alongside you, but my calling is to one day start a podcast that monetizes the women’s movement.”

Apparently, there’s also a line where Nicepool exclaims, “Where in God’s name is the intimacy coordinator?!” Yikes.

“If your wife is sexually harassed, you don’t make fun of Justin Baldoni. You don’t make fun of the situation,” Freedman told Megyn Kelly in a recent interview. “You take it very seriously. You file HR complaints, you raise the issue and you follow a legal process. What you don’t do is mock the person and turn it into a joke.”

The litigation hold letter demands that Marvel and Disney preserve “any and all documents relating to the development of the ‘Nicepool’ character” as well as “communications relating to the development, writing, and filming of storylines and scenes featuring ‘Nicepool.’” Additionally, it calls for the studio to retain “all documents relating to or reflecting a deliberate attempt to mock, harass, ridicule, intimidate, or bully Baldoni through the character of ‘Nicepool.’”

Even further still, the letter implies that a Baldoni v. Lively-esque back-and-forth also went on between Reynolds and Miller, who directed the first Deadpool movie but notably, didn’t return for the sequel or Deadpool & Wolverine, according to Variety. In allusion to the alleged drama, Freedman’s letter instructed the studio to preserve any documents and data “relating to complaints made against Ryan Reynolds by any person, including without limitation Tim Miller” and Miller’s departure from the film Deadpool 2 as well as any instances of Reynolds exerting “creative control of any film project.” Rumor has it that Reynolds and Miller clashed on set due to allegations of the former’s possessiveness.

“It became clear that Ryan wanted to be in control of the franchise,” Miller said in a 2019 interview. “You can work that way as a director, quite successfully, but I can’t. I don’t mind having a debate, but if I can’t win, I don’t want to play. And I don’t think you can negotiate every creative decision, there’s too many to make. So Ryan’s the face of the franchise, and he was the most important component of that, by far. So if he decides he wants to control it, then he’s going to control it.”

Baldoni has yet to file a lawsuit against Lively or Reynolds, but Variety noted that a hold letter like this typically precedes one. Previously, Freedman promised he’d sue the couple “into oblivion.” All action indicates more litigation is in store for 2025.