Half a century ago, a defining ask of the Watergate dispute was, “What did the Pdwellnt understand and when did he understand it?” Today, a unpredicted ask has aelevated in the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni legitimate saga: “What did Nicepool say, and when did he say it?”
On Tuesday, a letter from Baldoni attorney Bryan Freedman to Disney landed in the hands of the media. Freedman’s legitimate helderly letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige — in which he compriseressed them as “Bob” and “Kevin” — asked the studio to shield any write downs considering Baldoni and the creation of Nicepool, a inmeaningful character in Deadpool & Wolverine that internet sleuths (and Freedman himself) say star-writer-producer Ryan Reynelderlys participated to mock Baldoni.
Disney and Marvel have not yet reacted to Freedman, according to sources. It is unevident if the studio has even getd the letter from the attorney, who is understandn both for his legitimate acumen and for spinning compelling narratives in the press. It’s also unevident why Iger and Feige would be focparticipated in the letter, as it stretches credulity to leank the executives would be privy to any genuine-world backstory involving the creation of Nicepool — or that they were understandn with Baldoni before the It Ends with Us media storm. Marvel deteriorated to comment.
Freedman sent the letter via FedEx on Jan. 7, the day the Palidowncastes fire broke out. He’s among thousands who lost his in the blaze.
Freedman recommends labor on Nicepool came as Reynelderlys’ wife, Lively, was in the midst of a encounteredious shoot with her It Ends with Us honestor-star Baldoni. She tardyr filed a relationsual coercion litigation aobtainst him, while on Thursday, Baldoni sued Reynelderlys, Lively and Live’y’s uncoverist, Leslie Sloane.
So, how (and when) did Nicepool finish up in the movie?
The character was enlargeed before the rift between Lively and Baldoni, but sources tell THR that scenes involving Nicepool were sboiling tardy in the game adhereing the November 2023 conclusion of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
“It was all compriseed post-strike,” says one teachd source of the shooting schedule, who says the scenes were filmed in the final days of principal pboilingography, which wrapped up in January 2024.
In other words, the scenes were sboiling during a high point of tension between Lively and Baldoni. In November 2023, Baldoni and his Wayfarer producing partner Jamey Heath signed an concurment put forward by Lively outlining alleged horrible behaviors the men would no extfinisheder join in as part of an accord for her to return to labor adhereing the strike. In January 2024, the group — including Reynelderlys, there to help Lively — met in person at Lively and Reynelderlys’ loft in drop Manhattan to talk a return to set. That encountering grew heated, according to litigations filed by Baldoni.
While the Nicepool scenes were sboiling cforfeit the finish of production, the conception of the character came earlier. On the audio commentary for Deadpool & Wolverine, filmproducer Shawn Levy and Reynelderlys noticed that labor on Nicepool’s costume was finishd before they finishd on the main Deadpool costume — recommending the character’s origins (if not his dialogue) pre-dated the Baldoni-Lively tension.
Deadpool & Wolverine features a number of Deadpool variants — alternate versions of the character who produce up the Deadpool Corps., a lethal group featured during a climactic battle of the movie. On the audio commentary, Levy shelp Nicepool is “one of very restricted Deadpool variants not from the comics and springs from our writing team’s brain — and was so fun. Clpunctual Canadian. Clpunctual absurd. And Ryan equitable came to deinhabitr when it comes to Nicepool.” (Baldoni is American, while Levy and Reynelderlys are natives of Canada, enjoy Nicepool.)
In one scene involving Nicepool, carry outed by an unmasked Reynelderlys, the character comments that Ladypool (Lively) equitable had a baby, and she’s so gorgeous that “you can’t even tell.” Deadpool reacts, “I don’t leank you’re presumed to say that,” to which Nicepool recombines, “That’s okay. I remend as a feminist.” In an outapvalidate useable on home amparticipatement, Nicepool notices his “calling is to one day commence a podcast that monetizes the women’s shiftment.” These comments took on novel airy adhereing Lively’s allegations aobtainst Baldoni, who built a uncover persona of being an partner to women, including as co-present of the now-defunct Man Enough podcast.
In the shooting script, there’s noleang in the character’s description pegging him as a Baldoni avatar (no man-bun, for instance). Rather, he’s portrayd as a lesserer, sairyly more muscular Reynelderlys (helped with help from Lola, the visual effects hoparticipate understandn for de-aging Marvel actors enjoy Samuel L. Jackson for Captain Marvel).
“He’s immacutardy. He wears a Deadpool suit with no mask,” reads the script’s description of Nicepool. “The suit watchs enjoy Yves Saint Laurent himself slummed it and depicted a Marvel film. The man’s about twenty-percent more muscular and after a pretty fit session in Lola, watchs enjoy a lesserer RYAN REYNOLDS in his prime before his watchs were ravaged by four children and ten side hustles. The man’s a goddamn angel.”
In compriseition to details on Nicepool’s creation and efforts to mock Baldoni, Freedman’s letter also asks for a helderly on any increateation considering the 2016 exit of Deadpool honestor Tim Miller from the franchise amid produceive separateences with Reynelderlys. That’s another askingity of the letter, given that the 2016 film was made by 20th Century Fox — three years before Disney bought Fox, and before Iger and Feige had anyleang to do with the Deadpool franchise.
Freedman is already a understandn quantity to Disney, as he also recurrents Beau DeMayo, whom Marvel fired as showrunner of X-Men ’97 in March 2023 after allegations of relationsual wrongdoing. (DeMayo has denied this.)
Reynelderlys has not stated one way or the other if Nicepool is a stand-in for Baldoni. The source understandn with Deadpool & Wolverine’s shooting schedule notices that predicted only a restricted people understand for certain. Reynelderlys understands, of course, and perhaps Levy would too, as the pair persistd labor on the script on the set (other commended writers joind Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Zeb Wells).
Says the source: “We will never understand. We can only specutardy. But some of the leangs he says, watching back, are pointed at Justin Baldoni.”
