Disney and Marvel say there just may be more Deadpool down the line, and they don’t want Justin Baldoni to know anything about the “ongoing movie franchise.”
Actually, in the midst of reseting the MCU with upcoming Thunderbolts* and Fantastic Four, the still Bob Iger run media giant doesn’t want to reveal much of anything else to do with Ryan Reynolds when it comes to Baldoni’s ongoing and sprawling It Ends With Us legal battle with the superstar and Blake Lively.
In a series of sharply worded letters sent to federal Judge Lewis J. Liman over the past few days, lawyers for the parties have been taking potshots at each other over a subpoena digging into what went on during the making of R-rated blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine and was Reynolds mocking man bun-positive Baldoni with the cringy Nicepool character. They aren’t calling each other out for a playing a shell game, but they’re getting pretty damn close.
“Marvel requests, in the alternative to the primary relief sought, that the Court stay discovery from Marvel pending a determination of Ryan Reynolds’ motion to dismiss,” Meister Seelig & Fein and Liner Freedman Taitelman + Cooley attorneys for Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios, exec and PR team say in an sharp April 28 missive. “However, Reynolds himself has neither sought nor obtained a stay of discovery in connection with his dismissal motion. Additionally, and as detailed in the Wayfarer Parties’ opposition to Reynolds’ motion there are not substantial grounds for dismissal of the claims against him. And in the unlikely event claims against Reynolds are dismissed with prejudice, the information sought in the Subpoenas remains relevant as to the suit against Lively, as the Wayfarer Parties contend Reynolds was acting as an agent of Lively.”
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Noting, “for the sake of clarity, Nicepool is a defamatory and mocking portrayal of Baldoni” and alleged “malice,” the Jane the Virgin alum’s lawyers added in their Monday letter to Judge Liman: “The Wayfarer Parties have proposed, in good faith and to avoid any undue burden upon Marvel, to narrow the Subpoena to documents concerning Reynolds’ participation in the development of Nicepool and communications concerning Baldoni. Marvel will not be prejudiced if the Court declines to stay compliance with the Subpoena because the film has already been released, and any non-public documents can be marked ‘confidential’ pursuant to the Protective Order.”
First hit with sexual harassment and retaliation claims by Lively late last year spawned from the making of Sony distributed domestic violence drama It Ends With Us, Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios, execs and publicist have long claimed Reynolds is a major player in the whole drama, off-screen and in the courts. As the dispute notched it up with multi-million-dollar lawsuits on all sides, Baldoni’s main lawyer Bryan Freedman has tried to put focus on Reynolds’ role in supporting his wife during IEWU, the alleged astroturfing smear campaign against Lively that followed and in the whole thing going public.
To that, with the dismissal seeking Reynolds now a defendant in Baldoni’s $400 million defamation and extortion suit, there was an evidence retention letter sent to Iger and Marvel chief Kevin Feige in January around the time of the LA wildfires and now this looming subpoena.
In response, and obviously wanting to stay in the lucrative Ryan Reynolds business, Disney has drawn a spiked line in the MCU sand.
“The requested documents are particularly sensitive because they relate to the development of a character in an ongoing movie franchise,” the House of Mouse’s outside counsel from Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp declared in an April 25 correspondence. “Marvel has built the success of the MCU in large part by interconnecting storylines, plots, and characters across its titles, including ‘crossover’ events and sequels. Whether and how such elements will appear in upcoming, unreleased projects is the subject of much public interest, and this information is closely guarded by Marvel.”
“The discovery sought from Marvel is broad, disclosure of these confidential documents would prejudice Marvel, and Reynolds’ motion presents ‘substantial grounds for dismissal.’ At the same time, the Wayfarer Parties would not be prejudiced by a stay.”
With an ever growing pile of motions, melees, dismissal hopes and more in the court docket and a March 9, 2026 trial start in this “feud between PR firms,” as Judge Liman earlier this year termed the various cases and accusations, it may be a spell before the Nicepool subpoena quashing issue is addressed – but you can be certain a decision one way or another will come before we see Deadpool on the big screen again.
The post Disney & Marvel Don’t Want To Play Nicepool With Justin Baldoni Over ‘Deadpool’ In Blake Lively Battle appeared first on Deadline.
