A new layer has been added to the toxic lasagne that is the legal battle between Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds with her It Ends With Us co-star, Justin Baldoni.

We know by now that Lively and Baldoni are both suing each other. In Lively’s lawsuit, she alleges that Baldoni sexually harassed her on set and claims he engaged in a targeted smear campaign to destroy her reputation during the press run of the film. He calls the allegations ‘categorically false’ and a ‘desperate attempt’ to fix her reputation and ‘publicly’ hurt his.

In Baldoni’s, he alleges that The New York Times published Lively’s ‘self-serving narrative’ and accuses the publication of libel, false light invasion of privacy, promissory fraud and breach of implied-in-fact contract for its article about the alleged smear campaign Baldoni and his PR team conducted against Lively. He claims the incriminating cited text messages were taken out of context and seeks at least $250 million (£200 million) in damage. A spokesperson for The New York Times has said the publication plans to ‘vigorously defend’ itself against the lawsuit.

If all that wasn’t enough to contend with in the first few weeks of the year, Baldoni is now accusing Reynolds of bullying and claims he based his Deadpool & Wolverine character Nicepool, a faux feminist with a man bun, off him. Baldoni has requested that Disney retain any documents that might serve as evidence.

Fans first noticed a likeness between Baldoni and Nicepool shortly after Lively filed her initial complaint against the actor last month. ‘The more I learn about Nicepool’s character, the more evident it becomes that Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively were mocking Justin Baldoni in the Deadpool & Wolverine movie,’ one X post reads. In one deleted scene shared as an example, Nicepool says, ‘My calling is to host a podcast that monetises the women’s movement.’ This could be read as a dig at Baldoni’s podcast, Man Enough, which discusses modern masculinity.

There is another scene featuring Nicepool where he says Ladypool, played by Lively, ‘just had a baby too and you can’t even tell’. In Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni, she alleges that he used ‘back-channel ways of criticising her body and weight’ after giving birth to her fourth child. While promoting her husband’s film on Instagram in July, Lively said it appealed to her ‘feelings post baby about nice men who use feminism as a tool’.

Another X user weighed in and simply wrote, ‘Nicepool was a stereotypical creepy faux feminist sex pest,’ the post read, ‘so if Justin Baldoni wants to think that’s inspired by him then that says a lot more about him than it does anyone else.’

At the end of the film, Nicepool’s character ends up shot dead by Ladypool, while Deadpool, played by Reynolds, uses him as a shield. In the end credits, Reynold is listed as ‘Gordon Reynolds’ for his role as Nicepool, and Lively included ‘Gordon Reynolds’ in her acknowledgements during the end credits of It Ends With Us.

During the press run of both films, which came out two weeks apart, it was clear that Baldoni was not on good terms with Lively and Reynolds. Not only had they all unfollowed each other on social media, but Lively and Baldoni did not do any press junkets together and the rift between the cast quickly became the dominant story.

Baldoni’s lawsuit even claims that Lively attempted to block him from attending the premiere, sending his group ‘to the basement’ instead.

Whether the rumour has any truth to it or not is unclear, but it’s proven enough to rouse Baldoni’s suspicions. On 7 January, his legal team sent a litigation letter to Bob Iger and Kevin Feige – the presidents of Disney and Marvel Studios, respectively – demanding that the corporations hold onto any documentation that mentions Baldoni for potential use in court.

Apparently, Baldoni is requesting ‘any and all’ evidence surrounding the development of Nicepool’s character. He is looking in particular for anything that is ‘relating to or reflecting a deliberate attempt to mock, harass, ridicule, intimidate or bully’ him through the character of Nicepool. Reynolds has not publicly commented on the rumours, nor has a spokesperson for Disney.

The gloves are certainly off in this messy, inter-film, on- and off-screen legal battle – and it is unlikely that either party will back down anytime soon. In this instance, however, Baldoni’s accusation has drawn more attention to the Nicepool character and his alleged likeness than would have otherwise existed.

In fact, all three of their reputations have suffered as a result of this feud. Lively, Baldoni and now Reynolds are all being criticised and ridiculed on social media by fans and sceptics who are yet to know or understand the full story. At this point, it feels like we never will, and if it’s as toxic and messy as both sides are suggesting, that’s probably no bad thing.