Why Fans Think Ryan Reynolds Trolled Justin Baldoni in Deadpool Sequel

Did Ryan Reynolds Troll Justin Baldoni in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine?’ Why Fans Think So

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s dispute may have already hit the big screen.

Some social media users are speculating that the movie Deadpool & Wolverine, which stars the actress’ husband Ryan Reynolds and also features a cameo by the Gossip Girl alum herself, contains digs at her It Ends With Us costar and director.

Although the movie hit theaters in July 2023, the discourse has ramped up in the wake of Baldoni and Lively’s legal battle. In a Dec. 31 lawsuit, which followed a near-identical legal complaint she made to California’s Civil Rights Department, the actress accused him of sexually harassing her on the set of It Ends With Us and retaliating against her with a smear campaign after she complained.

Baldoni's lawyer has denied the accusations, calling them "categorically false." He has also filed a libel suit against the New York Times over its coverage of the alleged smear campaign referenced in her first legal complaint, alleging that it relied on "'cherry-picked" communications, referring to text conversations cited in her documents allegedly involving Baldoni and his publicists.

In Deadpool & Wolverine, which Reynolds also cowrote and coproduced and which was filmed around the same time as It Ends With Us, Ryan’s character Deadpool/Wade Wilson and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine/Logan encounter a Deadpool "variant," or alternate universe counterpart, named Nicepool, who sports a man bun—a hairstyle Baldoni wore for years until 2023.

The character, also played by Reynolds, comments on his female counterpart Ladypool (played by Lively), saying, "Oh my goodness, wait til you’ve seen Ladypool. She is gorgeous. She just had a baby too and [you] can’t even tell."

And after Nicepool discusses Ladypool's body, Deadpool tells him, "I don’t think you’re supposed to say that,” to which Nicepool responds, after putting one hand on his chest, "That’s OK. I identify as a feminist."

According to iMDB production notes, the Marvel movie completed filming in June 2024, five months after Lively and Reynolds had, according to her lawsuit, attended an "all hands" meeting with Baldoni and their It Ends With Us coproducers to address the alleged "repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior."

That meeting allegedly led to the execution of a contractual rider offering her protections, such as, “Physical touching and/or comments on Artist’s physical appearance must only be done/made in connection with the character and scene work, not as to Artist personally."

In both her filings, which are almost identical, Lively—who gave birth to her and Reynold’s fourth child, son Olin, months before filming on In Ends With Us began—alleges that Baldoni "routinely degraded" her by “finding back channel ways of criticizing her body and weight.”

In his Dec. 31 lawsuit filed against the New York Times—which stands by their reporting—Baldoni alleges Reynolds “aggressively berated” him during a meeting, "accusing him of 'fat shaming' Lively." The director states that while training for a scene in which his character would lift Lively’s, he asked his trainer how much the actress weighed.

Social media users pointed out that the alleged criticism sounded similar to Nicepool commenting on Ladypool’s post-baby body in Deadpool & Wolverine. Fans also speculated about the inspiration behind Nicepool's defense: “That’s OK. I identify as a feminist."

In 2017, Baldoni gave a TED talk titled “Why I'm done trying to be 'man enough,’” noting in his speech that he was “trying to be a feminist, amplifying the voices of women around the world.” In 2018, Baldoni penned a Romper essay about being a "feminist dad" to his and wife Emily Baldoni's two children.

In another scene in Deadpool & Wolverine, Emma Corrin’s supervillain character, Cassandra Nova, invades Deadpool’s mind and gains access to his memories by literally sticking her hand inside his head. Afterwards, he yells, "And where in God’s name is the intimacy coordinator?"

Both of Lively’s legal filings allege that Baldoni had "improvised physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed, or discussed" with her, "with no intimacy coordinator involved."

In his lawsuit against the New York Times, Baldoni alleges that the outlet and actress "intentionally exclude that Lively refused to meet with the intimacy coordinator to plan out the film’s sex scenes."

E! News has reached out to Reynolds' rep for comment on the fan speculation about Deadpool & Wolverine and has not heard back.

Find out what other celebrities have said about the Lively-Baldoni dispute…