LOS ANGELES (AP) — “It Ends With Us” actor and director Justin Baldoni has sued his co-star Blake Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, for defamation and extortion on Thursday in the latest move in a bitter legal battle surrounding the dark romantic drama.

"It is not strange that Ryan Reynolds was named in light of Baldoni's theories in the complaint," a defamation attorney tells Yahoo Entertainment.

Escalating his litigiousness, Baldoni has sued Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for $400 million, alleging that the power couple stole control of Baldoni's film as a director and orchestrated an effort to destroy his career and reputation with what he's referring to as false allegations of sexual assault.

The "Deadpool" franchise is named in Justin Baldoni's new lawsuit against "It Ends With Us" costar Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds. Here's why.

Baldoni and Lively have been at odds since the now-endless It Ends With Us press tour, after which rumors of sexual harassment allegations spilled into the press. By the end of Us, Baldoni had filed suit against the Times for its bombshell story accusing him of harassing Lively and orchestrating a smear campaign against him.

The ongoing legal drama between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively continues, now extending to the Marvel universe and Ryan Reynolds' box-office hit "Deadpool & Wolverine." Lively's actor husband is again being swept up in the mounting legal issues surrounding Baldoni,

Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, had said for weeks he planned to file a suit against Lively, Baldoni’s co-star on “It End With Us,” and Reynolds, Lively’s husband.

The lawsuit is the latest legal action in a feud tied to the 2024 film “It Ends With Us,” which starred Ms. Lively and Mr. Baldoni, who also directed the film.

On January 17, 2025, Justin responded to Blake's lawsuit with a bombshell of his own—filing a USD400-million defamation and extortion claim against her, her husband Ryan Reynolds, their publicist Leslie Sloane, and Sloane's PR firm Vision PR, Inc..

As per Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit, Taylor Swift’s surprise appearance during a meeting with Blake Lively pressured him to accept her script revisions

Justin Baldoni, director of It Ends With Us, sues co-star Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, sparking a major legal dispute.