Ryan Reynolds is striking back against Justin Baldoni's defamation lawsuit with a fierce counteraction. On March 18th, Tuesday, the 48-year-old star of "Deadpool & Wolverine" and his legal team submitted a motion to dismiss Baldoni's complaint, contending that the 41-year-old director-actor's allegations hold no water as the lawsuit hinges on Reynolds purportedly labeling Baldoni a "predator" in private conversations. According to Reynolds' attorneys, Mike Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, such a statement doesn't legally constitute defamation.
"The crux of Mr. Baldoni's case seemingly rests on Mr. Reynolds allegedly privately dubbing him a 'predator,' but here lies the crux of the matter—it isn't defamation unless they can prove that Mr. Reynolds didn't genuinely believe that statement to be true," Gottlieb and Hudson asserted in a statement. "The complaint fails to allege that. In fact, it hints at the contrary: that Mr. Reynolds sincerely believes Mr. Baldoni to be a predator."
Earlier in January, Baldoni had filed a whopping $400 million lawsuit against Reynolds, his wife Blake Lively, their publicist Leslie Sloane, and Sloane's PR firm Vision PR, Inc., stemming from a contentious behind-the-scenes saga involving "It Ends With Us."
In Reynolds' motion to dismiss, his attorneys also cited allegations leveled by Lively, 37, who has accused the "It Ends With Us" director-actor of sexual harassment and retaliation in numerous complaints. "Mr. Reynolds possesses a First Amendment right to express his opinion of Mr. Baldoni, which ought to serve as solace to those who have repeatedly branded Ms. Lively and Mr. Reynolds as 'bullies' and other derogatory terms over the past year," Gottlieb and Hudson further remarked.
A spokesperson for Reynolds dismissed Baldoni's lawsuit as an endeavor to target the actor for embodying the very values Baldoni purports to uphold. "The claims lodged against Mr. Reynolds amount to nothing more than a litany of grievances aiming to shame him for being the man Mr. Baldoni has constructed his brand around pretending to be—a man who is 'confident enough to listen' to the women in his life," the statement read.
"We eagerly anticipate this lawsuit being dismissed and reclaiming Steve Sarowitz's $100 million pledge by recovering Mr. Reynolds' costs and legal fees incurred in dismissing this frivolous suit," it continued.
PEOPLE has reached out to Baldoni and his legal team for comment. Meanwhile, on February 18th, Lively filed an updated version of her original lawsuit from December 2024, asserting that two unnamed female costars from "It Ends With Us" "will testify" about Baldoni's allegedly inappropriate conduct on set. In response, Baldoni's attorney Bryan Freedman described the amended complaint as "underwhelming" and "riddled with unsubstantiated hearsay from unnamed individuals who are evidently hesitant to come forward or publicly vouch for her claims."
The attorneys for both Lively and Baldoni opted out of "inappropriate" and "premature" pre-trial mediation in February; both cases in "Lively v. Wayfarer Studios et al." are presently slated to proceed to trial in March 2026. Reynolds' motion alleges that billionaire Steve Sarowitz, one of the plaintiffs in this suit, has pledged up to "$100 million to destroy Ms. Lively and Mr. Reynolds."
