DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE Stars Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively Declare "Total Victory" In Justin Baldoni Legal Battle

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE Stars Ryan Reynolds & Blake Lively Declare "Total Victory" In Justin Baldoni Legal Battle

Deadpool & Wolverine stars Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have scored a victory in their battle with It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni after a judge threw out his $400 million defamation lawsuit.

By JoshWilding - Jun 09, 2025 02:06 PM EST
Filed Under: Deadpool & Wolverine

The legal battle between Green Lantern star Blake Lively and filmmaker Justin Baldoni rolls on, and the latter has faced a major setback today after a judge threw out his $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and the New York Times. 

He filed the lawsuit earlier this year, nearly a month after Lively sued him for allegedly sexually harassing her on the set of It Ends With Us

Baldoni's countersuit claimed Lively had taken messages he'd sent her out of context, planted negative news stories about him, and argued that the Times had "cherry-picked" details in their piece to defame him. We're sure you'll also recall that Deadpool & Wolverine got dragged into the whole thing, with Baldoni's legal team arguing that the Nicepool Variant was based on their client and meant to ridicule him.

Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios, executives and PR team of Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel have until June 23 to submit an amended complaint. 

Judge Lewis Liman explained his decision by writing, "The Wayfarer Parties have not alleged that Lively is responsible for any statements other than the statements in her CRD complaint, which are privileged."

"The Wayfarer Parties have alleged that Reynolds and Sloane made additional statements accusing Baldoni of sexual misconduct and that the Times made additional statements accusing the Wayfarer Parties of engaging in a smear campaign," Liman, the brother of Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman, continued.

"But the Wayfarer Parties have not alleged that Reynolds, Sloane or the Times would have seriously doubted these statements were true based on the information available to them, as is required for them to be liable for defamation under applicable law."

Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has yet to weigh in, but Lively and Reynolds' team is positively buzzing. "Today’s opinion is a total victory and a complete vindication for Blake Lively, along with those that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties dragged into their retaliatory lawsuit, including Ryan Reynolds, Leslie Sloane and The New York Times," Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb told Deadline.

They added, "As we have said from day one, this '$400 million' lawsuit was a sham, and the Court saw right through it. We look forward to the next round, which is seeking attorneys’ fees, treble damages and punitive damages against Baldoni, Sarowitz, Nathan, and the other Wayfarer Parties who perpetrated this abusive litigation."

The case is still set to go to trial on March 9, 2026, and there's every chance Deadpool & Wolverine and Marvel Studios will still be key to the arguments made in court next year. For now, though, it certainly appears as if this is going in Lively and Reynolds' favour.

Stay tuned for updates as we have them.

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Kadara
Kadara - 6/9/2025, 2:45 PM
You could tell the Baldoni guy had no case when he tried to drag Marvel in this, because Deadpool made some vague jokes lol!!
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 6/9/2025, 3:05 PM
@Kadara - I think that's what will be his ultimate downfall in the case to be honest. He stated that the character "Nicepool" was made to mock him thus indirectly admitting that the accusations against him are true. He took ownership of the parody and even said it's based on him. Such an idiot.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 6/9/2025, 4:32 PM
@SonOfAGif - Eh, not necessarily, to me, unless what he thought was defaming him was explicitly the same type of stuff said by Nicepool said, I think. If not, I think an argument could be made that it was a mockery of him in the sense that it was an idea of him, rather than him or what he said. But what do I know? I only see this stuff from 3rd to 2nd hand sources either way, which I prefer removal from.
xstryker
xstryker - 6/9/2025, 6:08 PM
@dagenspear - mockery is not defamation. It’s absurd to even try to construe the limited screentime Nicepool had as making some kind of defamatory accusation, and almost no one would have associated the character with Baldoni if he hadn’t sued over it - massive Streisand effect
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/9/2025, 6:34 PM
@Kadara - It felt pretty weak to me too, but people kept saying "Just you wait, Baldoni's case is way stronger than it seems, etc"... 🤷 Sometimes things are exactly as they seem. It was a weak case.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 6/9/2025, 8:39 PM
@xstryker - I don't disagree fully. I found using that to be an overly sensitive claim.
JoeCanuck
JoeCanuck - 6/10/2025, 1:00 PM
@Kadara - Reynolds confirmed that they were not vague jokes. He defended them on the basis that "I believe it's true, so it's not defamation" and that got Marvel out of a deposition — something he needed to do because of reports that Reynolds himself used similar tactics to get stronger credits out of the first Deadpool movie over the director's objections (and Marvel/Disney wants to stay out of the courts).

Read the decision from the judge: apparently, filing reports against your co-worker constitutes a valid negotiating tactic and not damage to one's reputation.

Baldoni's legal team was given two weeks to craft a better argument. This ain't over by a long shot.
SteviesRightFoo
SteviesRightFoo - 6/9/2025, 2:49 PM
2 genuine Hollywood lunatic fruitcakes
movieguy18
movieguy18 - 6/9/2025, 2:50 PM
OMG. FML. LIVELAUGHLOVE.
Bond
Bond - 6/9/2025, 2:55 PM
User Comment Image
JurassicClunge
JurassicClunge - 6/9/2025, 2:58 PM
@Bond - this is great
Oberlin4Prez
Oberlin4Prez - 6/9/2025, 2:59 PM
Lively lives to bully another day
Wahhvacado
Wahhvacado - 6/9/2025, 3:04 PM
Seems like everyone part of this is awful
dracula
dracula - 6/9/2025, 3:14 PM
Seriously nobody would even make the nicelool connection if he did t bring it up
dragon316
dragon316 - 6/9/2025, 3:14 PM
Found whole thing be dumb ?si=GEGW89IezTZVmOmh
AllsNotGood
AllsNotGood - 6/9/2025, 3:21 PM
Pair of [foo foo]s
Jackraow21
Jackraow21 - 6/9/2025, 3:22 PM
Bwahahahaha. Nicepool got murdered twice.
harryba11zack
harryba11zack - 6/9/2025, 3:30 PM
User Comment Image
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/9/2025, 6:36 PM
@harryba11zack - Man I love that movie. 1992 was a great year for cbms.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/10/2025, 3:46 AM
@harryba11zack - Oh wait that's not Michelle Pfieffer, that's Blake Lively. My Bad.
Thought it was this.
User Comment Image
ZiggyStarman
ZiggyStarman - 6/9/2025, 4:15 PM
Blake thinking she will win is just another sign of her out-of-touch delusion.
BeNice123
BeNice123 - 6/9/2025, 6:15 PM
@ZiggyStarman - i use to be a big fan. Turns out shes just another bully. But she still hot af tho. Lol.
Matchesz
Matchesz - 6/9/2025, 8:18 PM
@BeNice123 - Amber Heard with the red hair still hotter
ZiggyStarman
ZiggyStarman - 6/10/2025, 4:30 AM
@BeNice123 - I was never a big fan of hers, I was always more indifferent. I still think she is hot and a bully batch. It's a funny emotional combination of disrespect and desire 😂
BeNice123
BeNice123 - 6/10/2025, 5:33 PM
@Matchesz - shes right there. But i still choose blake.
BeNice123
BeNice123 - 6/10/2025, 5:34 PM
@ZiggyStarman - exactly. You get me.
elgaz
elgaz - 6/9/2025, 4:34 PM
“Nicepool really reminds me of Justin Baldoni!” said no-one, ever.
bobevanz
bobevanz - 6/9/2025, 4:53 PM
Who cares.
Congo came out on this day 30 years ago! There's an amazing 4k restoration. I love this movie! Maybe because I was 6!
All hail Congo!
Lucasberg
Lucasberg - 6/9/2025, 9:07 PM
@bobevanz - Congo so bad it’s good! I saw that in at the rare drive-in theater when I was 12. So underwhelmed when I saw it but now appreciate the measure of disappointment that movie delivered lol. Congo and Last Action Hero achieved the most disappointment for me of all movies when I saw as a child haha.
DraculaX
DraculaX - 6/9/2025, 11:06 PM
@bobevanz - those white gorillas scared the shit out of me when I was little
BaddestOptics
BaddestOptics - 6/10/2025, 12:18 AM
@bobevanz - bad, bad gorilla!
Minghagz
Minghagz - 6/9/2025, 5:18 PM
Someone needs to hack into iCloud again
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 6/9/2025, 5:19 PM
...*sigh* alright, Alexa, play Deadpool & Wolverine on loop for the next 36 hours
BritishMonkey
BritishMonkey - 6/9/2025, 6:03 PM
Weird, I was just thinking about this case yesterday and how it quietened down and now suddenly an update on it.
Spiderfan2226
Spiderfan2226 - 6/9/2025, 8:07 PM
This isn’t a ‘total victory’. This isn’t a legal win on the merits. It’s a victory on the basis that this judge (and I’ll take his word for it) says even if what baldoni is claiming is true, it doesn’t meet the very narrow and difficult burden of defamation in America.

Basically baldoni didn’t prove that the times necessarily knew what they printed was untrue. and in California you can’t sue someone for claiming you sexually abused them. None of that is a ruling on wether or not Baldoni was actually right, he just didn’t have legal standing, hence ‘threw it out’
Nonameforme
Nonameforme - 6/9/2025, 9:14 PM
She still exposed exposed herself as being trash. Heard 2.0
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 6/9/2025, 9:31 PM
@Nonameforme - Wait, she shat in Baldoni's bed ?!



Based.
Geochili
Geochili - 6/10/2025, 1:38 AM
@Nonameforme - And you know this because you listened to arguments from both sides in a court of law? Do tell. Don't hold out on us here in the comments section of a CBM website.
Nonameforme
Nonameforme - 6/10/2025, 4:07 PM
@Geochili - k
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