Ryan Reynolds chooses fan event over attending World Cup with wife Blake Lively… after Taylor Swift wedding snub

As Blake Lively prepared to watch the World Cup final in person, her husband Ryan Reynolds was talking shop at the Fanatics Fest in New York City. 

Reynolds, 49, was making a scheduled appearance at the festival several hours before the big game actually began, taking part in a discussion about his iconic Marvel character before returning to the stage for a World Cup watch party. 

Unclear if his wife Lively, 38, was in attendance - she ended up watching Spain defeat Argentina with her girlfriends 16 miles away. 

The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for the couple for comment but has not yet heard back. 

The events seem to mark the couple's first major public appearances since they were snubbed from Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's Madison Square Garden wedding - a slight no doubt connected to Lively's legal battle with Justin Baldoni.  

But Reynolds was focused on his passions as he attended the Fanatics Fest, where the Wrexham co-owner discussed a fourth Deadpool and talked Argentinian soccer sensation Lionel Messi. 

'There's eventually, you know, remotely, another Deadpool film,' he said during a panel entitled The Art of Deadpool with Ryan Reynolds..

He also weighed in on the new Deadpool trading cards - revealing he bought an autographed Hugh Jackman card that he was unable to read as it was written 'in Australian.' 

'I did some bartering. I was looking for... autographed Deadpool Chrome cards. I got them. I didn't get the double pack. That was like $50,000 or something, but I did get the one Hugh Jackman,' he said.

'It's going in the personal collection,' he continued when asked what type he got. 'I don't know which one it was, it was the chrome, which is beautiful, autographed... I can't totally read the inscription that he wrote, he wrote it in Australian, so I don't know what he's talking about,' he joked. 'But lovely though.'

'Deadpool's got so many different verticals,' he said. 'It's obviously major motion pictures. That's a huge part of it. It's the part that... changed my whole life. It's a part that I still to this day feel is my mothership in a lot of ways. But it's such an expansive universe.

'There's so many different places. We've seen Deadpool in animated form, in comic books, in obviously in the movies, and all these different things, and different iterations over so many years.

'So many brilliant comic book artists who have reinterpreted the character in different ways for different runs and we wanted all of that represented in this collection by Topps. 

'So we wanted to feel like it was, yeah, you're hitting stills and moments from the movies but they're candids. They're not necessarily ripped right out of the film. 

'They're moments backstage, behind stage, all that kind of stuff, and then of course they're moments from the movie, but also actual comic books, actual right out of the comic books, you have other pieces that are out of the anime and stuff. So I love that they cover all the basis.' 

It appeared to be one of several appearances Reynolds made at the event. 

He also appeared on stage for Men In Blazers' World Cup Watch Party, where he discussed Lionel Messi's work ethic. 

'Lionel Messi's running off Aura right now,' he said. 'These are these guys that find this kind of extra gear. I remember seeing a short kind of video story about Lionel Messi working out on his birthday at the gym on his birthday. 

'People are kind of like, well he has no life. And I was like, no he doesn't have a life. He's Lionel f**king Messi.'

'The guy's a born competitor and he rises to the occasion. This is his sandbox right now.' 

Given the Fanatics Fest was being held 16 miles away from where the World Cup was held, it seems unlikely that Reynolds was able to make the game in time. 

But his wife, 38, was able to appear at the game, which she attended with her own 'squad' of friends -Libby Glazer, Kendall Arin Glazer, and Emma Gray.

She posted a smiling selfie to her Instagram which showed her posing by the field with her friends.  

Once BFFs, Lively's absence from Swift's wedding illustrated the painful toll her legal battle with Justin Baldoni took on her friendship with the Love Story singer.

The goddaughter to Lively's three daughters, Swift reportedly fell out with the actress after she was dragged into her legal battle with Justin Baldoni.

A source has since informed the Daily Mail of Lively's fury over her rejection, which has set a match to any chance she and Swift might mend fences in the future. 

Lively is 'sad and a little bit p***ed. No, a lot p***ed,' said the insider. 'That friendship was over before but if there was hope, it's gone. They'll never be friends again.'

The Gossip Girl star 'wanted to go,' the source noted. 'It feels bad to be excluded like that. She had sort of hoped that despite everything, their history was enough that they'd be included, but that's not the way it went.'

In the days after the wedding , Lively and Reynolds were seen enjoying an off-duty day in his native Canada.

Lively had previously sued Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios production company in December 2024 for alleged defamation and sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us, which they starred in together, with Baldoni also directing.

Baldoni retaliated the following month with a $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds and the New York Times, which had first published her claims.

All of the parties in the lawsuits denied the allegations against them.

In October 2025, a judge dismissed Baldoni’s case, and in May of this year, after a judge dismissed most of Lively’s claims, she agreed to settle the case.

Lively was not paid any money in the settlement, but Judge Lewis Liman, who presided over the case at a New York court, did allow her to seek legal fees solely related to Baldoni’s failed case against her.

Swift's reported fallout with the actress happened after she was subpoenaed in the her lawsuit against Baldoni, before the subpoena was later withdrawn.

Swift, whose hit song My Tears Ricochet was featured on the soundtrack of Baldoni's 2024 film It Ends With Us - where he starred alongside Lively - was pulled into the rollercoaster saga last year when Baldoni filed a $400 million countersuit accusing Lively and her husband of defamation. The suit was later thrown out.

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 the ill-fated flick.

In January, a source told DailyMail.com: 'Her friends also think that Blake's "I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have dragons" text to Justin was uncool and unnecessary because she was essentially used as an intimidation tactic. She was referred to as some kind of pet or possession.'

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 Kelce unfollowed Reynolds on Instagram.

Swift and Lively have been friends for a decade, with the pair celebrating milestones together and the singer even name dropping Lively’s children in her music.