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Actress Blake Lively recently filed a lawsuit against her It Ends With Us co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, alleging sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign. Lively claims Baldoni created a hostile work environment through inappropriate behavior and later orchestrated a smear campaign to damage her reputation.
In response to Blake Lively’s lawsuit, Justin Baldoni denied the allegations and countersued The New York Times for $250 million for misrepresenting communications to support Lively’s claims.
While the beef between Lively and Baldoni is just coming to light now, the back-and-forth has clearly been going on for some time — so long, in fact, that Marvel Cinematic Universe fans believe a character in Deadpool & Wolverine was used to make fun of Baldoni.
A thread posted to X, fomerly Twitter, by user @spiritualshift_ makes the compelling case that the Nicepool character in Deadpool & Wolverine was used as a tool to make fun of It Ends With Us director and star Justin Baldoni.
(2) This scene features a supervillain, Cassandra Nova using her powers to probe Deadpool’s mind (also played by Ryan Reynolds). As she invades his memories, Deadpool exclaims, “And where in God’s name is the intimacy coordinator?” A pointed jab referencing Blake’s allegations… pic.twitter.com/v9DUe5M49E
— The Spiritual Shift (@spiritualshift_) January 8, 2025
(4) Here, Nicepool imitating Justin is being criticized for opening up about his trauma and turning to faith and spirituality for healing, something Justin has openly discussed in his podcast and interviews. pic.twitter.com/otvSJVP2GM
— The Spiritual Shift (@spiritualshift_) January 8, 2025
The thread also points out that the Nicepool character not only meets his end in brutally gory fashion but does so in front of a flower shop, which is a key location in It Ends With Us, and is shot to death by Ladypool, who was played by Blake Lively.
“What happens to Nicepool’s character at the end? Well he gets shot to death multiple times by Ladypool played by Blake Lively herself while Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds, uses Nicepool as a human shield. The scene takes place outside a flower shop referencing the movie It Ends With Us,” the thread concludes.
“In the movie, Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds, reveals that he was also involved in the plan to kill Nicepool along with Ladypool. This feels like a case of art imitating life, as it is playing out in real life that Ryan and Blake joined forces to undermine Justin.”
Deadpool & Wolverine, which made over $1.3 billion at the global box office and was Marvel’s first R-rated film, is now streaming on Disney+. It Ends With Us is streaming on Netflix.