It looks like Justin Baldoni may be willing to go to war with Marvel and Disney over a joke made by Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Baldoni is currently suing The New York Times for $250 million (around £205 million) over a recent story about a harassment complaint made against him and other producers by his It Ends With Us co-star, Blake Lively.
But Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, may also be going after Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, over the way he allegedly mocked the filmmaker and actor.
According to Variety, Freedman sent a litigation hold letter to Marvel and Disney bigwigs Kevin Feige and Bob Iger on 7 January, over his client’s “anticipated claims” against Reynolds, Lively and other unnamed parties.
Considering that It Ends With Us was made by Sony and not Disney or Marvel, the legal request might seem strange, but Freedman apparently is focused on finding the details behind a deleted-but-resurfaced scene from Deadpool & Wolverine that he believes mocks Baldoni.
The scene shows Reynolds as both Deadpool and another character, Nicepool, a variant from an alternate universe who wears a man bun, a hairstyle associated with Baldoni until last year.
Reynolds is one of the credited screenwriters, and, at one point, Nicepool tells Deadpool that he’d “be fighting alongside you, but my calling is to one day start a podcast that monetises the women’s movement,” a possible reference to Baldoni’s Man Enough podcast.
Freedman’s letter calls on both Marvel and Disney to preserve all relevant documents and data related to Baldoni, as well as “any and all documents relating to the development of the Nicepool character” and also “communications relating to the development, writing, and filming of storylines and scenes featuring Nicepool”, Variety reports.
The letters also demand that Disney and Marvel “retain all documents relating to or reflecting a deliberate attempt to mock, harass, ridicule, intimidate, or bully Baldoni through the character of Nicepool”.
Although Freedman didn’t comment directly to Variety about the letter, he told Megyn Kelly last week that Nicepool’s hairstyle means there’s “no question [the scene] relates to Justin”.
However, he told Kelly that Reynolds’ joke against Baldoni could backfire when it comes time to defend their actions against his client.
“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,” Freedman said.
“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 lawyer added: “Again, if somebody is seriously sexually harassed, you don’t make fun of it. It’s a serious issue.”
Variety notes that the end of Deadpool & Wolverine says that the role of Nicepool is credited to “Gordon Reynolds”, and points out that Blake Lively thanked a person by the same name in the end credits of It Ends With Us.