Half a century ago, the crucial question in the Watergate scandal was: “What did the president know and when did he know it?” Today, a surprising question emerged in the legal saga between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni: “What did Niceball say, and when did he say it?”
On Tuesday, a letter from Baldoni’s attorney Brian Friedman to Disney reached the media. In his legal sequestration letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige — in which he addressed them as “Bob” and “Kevin” — Friedman asked the studio to preserve any documents related to Donnie and the creation of Niceball, a minor character in Deadpool Wolverine Internet sleuths (and Friedman himself) say star writer-producer Ryan Reynolds was making fun of Baldoni.
Disney and Marvel have not yet responded to Friedman, according to sources. It’s not clear whether the studio received the letter from the lawyer, who is known for his legal acumen and telling compelling narratives in journalism. It’s also unclear why Iger and Feige were targeted in the letter, as it’s naive to think the executives would be privy to any real-world backstory involving the creation of Nicepool — or that they were aware of Donnie before And it ends with us Media storm. Marvel declined to comment.
Friedman sent the letter via FedEx on January 7, the day the Palisades Fire broke out. He is among the thousands who lost their belongings in the fire.
Friedman suggests that the work on Nicepool came about when Reynolds’ wife, Lively, was in the midst of a controversial photo shoot with her. And it ends with us Star director Baldoni. She later sued him for sexual harassment, while on Thursday Baldoni sued Reynolds, Lively and Live’y’s publicist, Leslie Sloan.
So, how (and when) did Nicepool end up in the movie?
The character was developed before the feud between Lively and Baldoni, but sources say THR Those scenes involving Nicepool were filmed late in the game after the SAG-AFTRA strike ended in November 2023.
“It was all added on after the hit,” says a source familiar with the shooting schedule, with scenes filmed in the final days of principal photography, which wrapped in January 2024.
In other words, the scenes were filmed during a period of intense tension between Lively and Baldoni. In November 2023, Baldoni and his Wayfarer producing partner Jamey Heath signed an agreement put forth by Lively outlining alleged misconduct in which men would no longer engage in as part of her return to work agreement 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 group. That meeting became heated, according to Baldoni’s lawsuits.
While the Nicepool scenes were filmed toward the end of production, the idea for the character came early. On the voiceover of Deadpool Wolverinedirector Shawn Levy and Reynolds indicated that work on the baseball costume was completed before they settled on the main Deadpool costume – suggesting that the character’s origins (if not his dialogue) predated the tension between Baldoni and Zephyr.
Deadpool Wolverine Featuring a number of Deadpool variants – alternate versions of the character that make up the Deadpool Corps., a deadly group that appears during the film’s climactic battle. In the voiceover, Levy said that Nicepool is “one of the very few versions of Deadpool that’s not from the comics and comes from the mind of our writing team — and it was a lot of fun. Obviously Canadian. Obviously silly. And Ryan just came in and delivered when it came to Nicepool.” (Baldoni is American, while Levy and Reynolds are Canadian citizens, like Naceball.)
In one scene involving Naisball, played by an unconvincing Reynolds, the character comments that Ladypool (Lively) has just had a baby, and that she’s so gorgeous that “you can’t even say it.” “I don’t think you’re supposed to say that,” Deadpool replies, and Neasball rejoins him, “It’s okay. I consider myself a feminist.” In excerpts available on Home Entertainment, Neasball notes that “his calling is to one day start a podcast “Monetizes feminism.” Those comments took on new light after Lively’s allegations against Baldoni, who built a public persona on being an ally to women, including co-hosting the now-defunct show. Man enough Podcast.
In the shooting script, there is nothing in the character description that links him to being a Baldoni avatar (there is no man bun, for example). Instead, he was billed as a younger, slightly more muscular Reynolds (with the help of Lola, the visual effects house known for aging Marvel actors like Samuel L. Jackson’s Captain Marvel).
“He’s immaculate. “He wears the Deadpool suit without a mask,” Nicepool’s script description says. “The suit looks like it was made by Yves Saint Laurent himself and designed for a Marvel movie. The guy has about twenty percent more muscles, and after a very healthy session at Lola, he looks like a younger Ryan Reynolds in his prime before four kids and ten side gigs ruined his looks. The man is a fucking angel.”
In addition to details about the creation of Niceball and efforts to mock Baldoni, Friedman’s letter also requests that any information related to Baldoni’s 2016 exit be suspended. dead pool Director Tim Miller has left the franchise amid creative differences with Reynolds. This is another curious thing about the letter, given that the 2016 film was produced by 20 peopley Century Fox – Three years before Disney bought Fox, and before Iger and Feige had anything to do with the Deadpool franchise.
Friedman is already a well-known figure for Disney, as he also represents Beau DeMayo, who was fired by Marvel as showrunner X-Men ’97 In March 2023 after allegations of sexual misconduct. (DeMaio denied this.)
Reynolds did not say one way or another whether Naceball would be Baldoni’s replacement. The source is informed Deadpool WolverineThe filming schedule suggests that it’s likely only a few people know for sure. Reynolds knew, of course, and Levy probably would too, as the duo continued to work on the script on set (other credited writers included Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Zeb Wells).
“We’ll never know,” the source says. We can only speculate. But some of the things he says, looking back, point to Justin Baldoni.