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Deadpool & Wolverine's Nicepool is about to cause a lot of legal trouble for Disney and Marvel
What if Nicepool was a pointed parody too far, and somebody sued? That might be about to happen...
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The ongoing legal battles between actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have opened up a new, and somewhat unlikely, front, with Baldoni’s lawyers reaching out to Disney and Marvel over whether or not a character from 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine was intended as a snarky in-joke at Baldoni’s expense. Yes, really.
According to Variety, Disney CEO Bob Iger, Marvel president Kevin Feige and director Tim Miller — somewhat confusingly, as he didn’t direct Deadpool & Wolverine; that was Shawn Levy — were contacted by attorney Bryan Freedman in a letter sent January 7, asking for a preservation on any and all documents related to the creation and development of the character Nicepool, an alternate reality version of Deadpool that Freedman believes was a parody of Baldoni.
Freedman’s belief stems from the fact that Nicepool is presented as a faux feminist, making comments about Ladypool’s figure and defending doing so by saying, “That’s okay, I identify as a feminist.”
The conflict between Baldoni and Lively — who is, of course, married to Deadpool star, producer, and co-writer Ryan Reynolds — has been ongoing since the production of 2024’s It Ends With Us, in which the two actors appeared together. It exploded with a December 2024 New York Times piece which exposed an alleged smear campaign against Lively conducted on the instruction of Baldoni and associates, although the actor denies the story. Lively is suing Baldoni, It Ends with Us studio Wayfarer Studios, and associated parties for sexual harassment and retaliation. In response, Baldoni has filed suit against the Times.
This isn’t the first time that Freedman has made this argument; he did so on Sirius XM’s The Megyn Kelly Show in early January, saying, “There’s no question it related to Justin. I mean, anybody that watched that hair bun — if somebody is seriously sexually harassed, you don’t make fun of it. It’s a serious issue.”
In the letter to Marvel and Disney, Freedman instructs the studios to preserve any and all documents related to Nicepool’s creation. Miller’s involvement in the letter seemingly stems from the director’s decision not to return to shoot either of the subsequent Deadpool movies after his work on the first installment, and asks Disney, Marvel, and Miller to preserve any documents “relating to complaints made against Ryan Reynolds by any person, including without limitation Tim Miller.”
As yet, no legal case has been filed on behalf of Baldoni relating to Nicepool, Deadpool, or even Ryan Reynolds — but if this letter is any indication, that might change very quickly. Who’d’ve thought that, after saving the MCU, Deadpool’s next enemy would be the US legal system?
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