Half a century ago, one of the defining questions of the Watergate scandal was: “What did the president know and when did he know it?” » Now a surprising question emerges in the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni legal saga: “What did Nicepool say, and when did he say it?”
On Tuesday, a letter from Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, to Disney landed in the hands of the media. Freedman’s legal hold letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige – in which he referred to them as “Bob” and “Kevin” – asked the studio to preserve all documents relating to Baldoni and the creation of Nicepool, a minor character in Deadpool and Wolverine that Internet sleuths (and Freedman himself) say star writer-producer Ryan Reynolds was making fun of Baldoni.
Disney and Marvel have yet to respond to Freedman, according to sources. It’s unclear whether the studio even received the letter from the lawyer, known both for his legal acumen and his compelling stories in the press. It’s also unclear why Iger and Feige would be targeted in the letter, as it would be credulous to think that the executives would be aware of an actual story involving the creation of Nicepool – or that they knew about Baldoni before the It ends with us media storm. Marvel declined to comment.
Freedman sent the letter via FedEx on Jan. 7, the day the Palisades Fire broke out. He is one of thousands of people who lost theirs in the fire.
Freedman suggests work on Nicepool took place while Reynolds’ wife, Lively, was in the middle of a controversial shoot with her It ends with us director-star Baldoni. She later filed a sexual harassment complaint against him, while on Thursday, Baldoni sued Reynolds, Lively and Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloane.
So how (and when) did Nicepool end up in the movie?
The character was developed before Lively and Baldoni’s breakup, but sources say THR that scenes involving Nicepool were filmed at the end of the match after the conclusion in November 2023 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
“Everything was added after the strike,” says a source familiar with the filming schedule, who says the scenes were shot in the final days of principal photography, which wrapped in January 2024.
In other words, the scenes were filmed during a moment of intense tension between Lively and Baldoni. In November 2023, Baldoni and his Wayfarer producing partner Jamey Heath signed a deal proposed by Lively outlining alleged bad behavior the men would no longer engage in as part of a deal allowing him to return to work after the strike. In January 2024, the group — including Reynolds, there to support Lively — met in person at Lively and Reynolds’ loft in lower Manhattan to discuss a return to the set. That meeting became heated, according to Baldoni’s lawsuit.
While the Nicepool scenes were filmed toward the end of production, the character conception came earlier. On the audio commentary of Deadpool and Wolverinefilmmaker Shawn Levy and Reynolds noted that work on Nicepool’s costume was completed before deciding on the main Deadpool costume – suggesting that the character’s origins (if not his dialogue) predated the Baldoni-Lively tension.
Deadpool and Wolverine features a number of Deadpool variants – alternate versions of the character that makes up the Deadpool Corps, a deadly group introduced during a climactic battle in the film. In the audio commentary, Levy said that Nicepool is “one of the very few variations of Deadpool that didn’t come from the comics that sprang from the brains of our writing team — and it was so much fun.” Clearly Canadian. Clearly absurd. And Ryan has risen to the occasion when it comes to Nicepool. (Baldoni is American, while Levy and Reynolds are from Canada, like Nicepool.)
In a scene involving Nicepool, played by an unmasked Reynolds, the character comments that Ladypool (Lively) just had a baby and is so gorgeous you can’t even tell. Deadpool responds, “I don’t think you’re supposed to say that,” to which Nicepool responds, “It’s OK.” I identify as a feminist. In an excerpt available on Home Entertainment, Nicepool notes that her “vocation is to one day launch a podcast that monetizes the women’s movement.” Those comments took on a new light following Lively’s allegations against Baldoni, who built a public persona as an ally to women, including as co-host of the now-defunct show. Enough man podcast.
In the shooting script, there is nothing in the character description that considers him a Baldoni avatar (no bun, for example). He is instead portrayed as a younger, slightly more muscular Reynolds (aided with help from Lola, the visual effects house known for de-aging Marvel actors like Samuel L. Jackson for Captain Marvel).
“It’s impeccable. He wears a Deadpool costume without a mask,” reads the description of Nicepool in the script. “The suit looks like Yves Saint Laurent himself designed it and designed a Marvel movie. The man is about twenty percent more muscular and after a pretty healthy session with Lola he looks like a young RYAN REYNOLDS in the prime of life before his appearance was ravaged by four children and ten side hustles. This man is a fucking angel.
In addition to details about the creation of Nicepool and efforts to mock Baldoni, Freedman’s letter also requests to withhold any information regarding the 2016 release of dead Pool director Tim Miller of the franchise amid creative differences with Reynolds. This is another curiosity of the letter, given that the 2016 film was directed by 20th Century Fox – three years before Disney bought Fox, and before Iger and Feige had anything to do with the Deadpool franchise.
Freedman is already a well-known figure at Disney, as he also portrays Beau DeMayo, who Marvel fired as showrunner of X-Men ’97 in March 2023 after allegations of sexual misconduct. (DeMayo has denied this.)
Reynolds did not indicate one way or the other whether Nicepool was replacing Baldoni. The source familiar with Deadpool and WolverineThe filming schedule notes that only a few people know for sure. Reynolds knows this, of course, and perhaps Levy would too, as the two men continued to work on the script on set (other credited writers included Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Zeb Wells).
According to the source: “We will never know. We can only speculate. But some of the things he says, in hindsight, are aimed at Justin Baldoni.
