Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds on Thursday expressed their intention to ask a federal court to drop a lawsuit filed earlier this month by her It Ends with Us director Justin Baldoni.

‘The Lively-Reynolds Parties intend to move to dismiss Plaintiffs’ complaint,’ an attorney for the Hollywood power couple, Michael Gottlieb, told Judge Lewis Liman in a letter, Variety reported Thursday after reviewing legal documents in the case.

Judge Liman had previously requested the lawyers to send a written notice to ‘indicate in one sentence the Defendant’s intent to make a motion to dismiss.’

The judge is expected to schedule a deadline date for them to submit the paperwork in the request, the outlet reported.

Lively and Reynolds’ publicist Leslie Sloane, who Baldoni also named in his lawsuit as a defendant, on Wednesday submit a similar statement to the court.

Dailymail.com has reached out to reps and attorneys for Lively, 37, and Reynolds, 48, and Baldoni, 41, for further comment on this story.

+15
View gallery

Blake Lively, 37, and Ryan Reynolds, 48, on Thursday asked a federal court to drop a lawsuit filed earlier this month by her It Ends with Us director Justin Baldoni, 41. Lively and Reynolds pictured at the NYC premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine in July

+15
View gallery

The legal request comes as the first hearing in a spate of lawsuits between the collaborators on the summer hit is set to commence next week. Baldoni pictured in NYC in August

The legal request comes as the first hearing in a spate of lawsuits between the collaborators on the summer hit is set to commence on Monday, February 3 with a pretrial conference.

The conference was pushed up from an initial date of February 12, according to Variety, ahead of a trial with a starting date of March 9, 2026 in the case.

Lawyers for both parties were in accordance with a plan to compound both federal cases filed into one moving forward, the outlet reported.

Lively and Reynolds’ legal team has  been asking the court to sanction Baldoni lawyer Bryan Freedman with a ‘gag order’ regarding ‘extrajudicial statements’ he made.

Freedman this month has spoken about the case on shows hosted by Megyn Kelly and Chris Cuomo, as well as in the Hulu documentary IMPACT x Nightline: Blake vs. Justin.

Among the issues on hand in relation to Freedman include putting together a website which would showcase integral evidence to the cases in the form of documents, footage and messages Baldoni and Lively exchanged.

Lawyers for Lively and Reynolds on Monday said Freedman had been ‘engaging in this extrajudicial campaign to influence these proceedings and the public perception of legal filings to this Court, and there already is a serious risk that his misconduct is tainting the jury pool.’

They added in legal documents, according to the AP, that ‘the endless stream of defamatory and extrajudicial media statements must end.’

+15
View gallery

Reynolds pictured in NYC on Thursday amid the legal ongoings

+15
View gallery

The A-list actor was seen autographing items for fans on the winter day

+15
View gallery

Baldoni has accused Reynolds of mocking him with a Deadpool character named Nicepool

Ryan Reynolds greets fans in NYC as Blake Lively hides away

Attorney Esra Hudson, who is representing Lively and Reynolds, told the judge in a January 24 letter, ‘Requiring counsel to heed the ethical rules that bind them is not a gag order.’

Hudson said ‘it is a mechanism that would ensure the proceedings in this Court are are not prejudiced by counsel’s conduct outside of the courtroom.’

Freedman responded Monday with a statement in response, according to the AP, stating ‘irony is not lost on anyone that Ms. Lively is so petrified of the truth that she has moved to gag it.’

Freedman added, ‘We will always respect the court; however, we will never be bullied by those suggesting we cannot defend our clients with pure, unedited facts.

‘All we want is for people to see the actual text messages that directly contradict her allegations, video footage that clearly shows there was no sexual harassment and all the other powerful evidence that directly contradicts any false allegations.’

Freedman told Deadline Thursday that lawyers for Lively and Reynolds were looking to stall the proceedings.

‘All these motions to dismiss are just yet another attempt by Ms. Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Leslie Sloan to hide and delay the discovery of the hundreds of pages of true facts and well-documented information that we remain dedicated to providing publicly, with full transparency,’ Freedman told Deadline.

He added, ‘We expect such motions to be denied and, in the meantime, stand ready to oppose each and every one of them.’

+15
View gallery

Lively and Reynolds asked the court to sanction Baldoni lawyer Bryan Freedman (pictured) with a ‘gag order’ regarding ‘extrajudicial statements’ he made in different media appearances

+15
View gallery

Lively last month sued Baldoni amid claims of sexual harassment during production of the motion picture, which was a hit when it arrived in theaters in August.

+15
View gallery

Lively accused Baldoni of sexually harassing her in multiple ways – including body shaming her – during production of It Ends with Us. Pictured in January 2024 in NYC on the set of the film

All the times Blake Lively was ‘mean’ to Baldoni behind-the-scenes

Baldoni’s team on Thursday informed the judge that they had wanted to conduct a deposition with Lively immediately, but the actress was resistant to speaking with Freedman.

Lively attributed her reluctance to do the deposition with Freedman to ‘unspecified statements made by’ the lawyer, Variety reported.

Baldoni attorney Kevin Fritz said that Lively – who appears to have rankled pal Taylor Swift amid her inadvertent peripheral involvement in the case – does ‘not have the right’ to dictate who she speaks to amid the legal process.

Fritz said, ‘We are unaware of any situation that would warrant the deposed party to have a choice in which attorney takes her deposition.

‘Parties to litigation simply do not have the right to dictate which of their opponents’ attorneys may or may not take their deposition or perform any other aspect of the opposing party’s case.’

Fritz said he is focused on flagging the issue to the court in Monday’s hearing.

Fritz last week penned a letter to the judge saying that Lively had presided over a smear campaign against Baldoni that resulted in the actor-director and his co-defendants becoming ‘objects of public scorn and contempt’ who had been ‘exiled from polite society.’

Baldoni ‘suffered damages totaling hundreds of millions of dollars due to Ms. Lively’s scorched-earth media campaign,’ Fritz said, the AP reported citing legal documents.

+15
View gallery

It Ends with Us, which also starred Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Brandon Sklenar and Kevin McKidd, arrived in theaters August 9 and was a hit with audiences

Justin Baldoni claims he was sent to a ‘basement’ for premiere

Lively on Tuesday filed legal documents in Hays County, Texas asking it to conduct a deposition of a man she said had tarnished her image with an online campaign around the time the film was released, the AP reported.

In what appears to be an advance notice of a pending lawsuit, Lively said that crisis management specialist Jed Wallace – who is named but not a defendant in Lively’s federal case – used platforms including Reddit and TikTok to poison the public’s opinion of Lively, while on Baldoni’s payroll.

Lively’s legal team said Wallace ‘weaponized a digital army around the country, including in New York and Los Angeles, to create, seed, manipulate, and advance disparaging content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums.’

The filing indicated that Freedman is acting as attorney for Wallace.

Lively last month sued Baldoni amid claims of sexual harassment during production of the motion picture, which was a hit when it arrived in theaters in August.

In Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni, the Gossip Girl alum accused Baldoni of sexually harassing her in multiple ways – including body shaming her – and orchestrating a smear campaign against her to damage her reputation.

Baldoni has denied all of the claims against him in Lively’s legal filing. He and his reps have said in response to the lawsuit that Lively twisted the meaning of text messages and mislead the public about their interactions while making the motion picture.

Lively – who is mother to four kids with the Deadpool star Reynolds – filed an 80-page civil rights complaint with the California Civil Rights Department against Baldoni December 20, before officially filing a federal lawsuit on December 31.

+15
View gallery

The motion picture earned $148 million in domestic box office, and $350 million globally

Justin Baldoni never wanted ‘to hurt’ Blake Lively says attorney

In her lawsuit, Lively named a number of Baldoni’s collaborators, including his company Wayfarer Studios, the studio’s CEO and financial backer, and PR personnel Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel.

‘I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted,’ Lively told The New York Times the day after she filed the complaint.

Baldoni subsequently sued the newspaper for $250 million in a defamation claim over a December 21 story titled ‘”We Can Bury Anyone”: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.’

Attorneys for Baldoni in mid-January distributed letters demanding various entertainment industry figures safeguard evidence linked to claims that Reynolds wrote a character named Nicepool into the Deadpool 2 film, intended to parody and humiliate Baldoni.

Baldoni on January 16 filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds and her publicist Leslie Sloane, alleging defamation and extortion. Baldoni told the court the trio had concocted ‘false accusations of sexual harassment’ against him.

+15
View gallery

Lively on Tuesday filed legal documents in Texas asking it to conduct a deposition of a man she said had tarnished her image with an online campaign around the time the film was released. Pictured in London in August

Since Lively’s complaint was filed, Baldoni has faced a number of professional consequences, including a lawsuit from a former publicist; and being dropped by the agency WME, which also reps Lively and Reynolds.

WME has denied claims that Lively and Reynolds leaned on them to release Baldoni from their client roster, according to Variety.

It Ends with Us, which also starred Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Brandon Sklenar and Kevin McKidd, arrived in theaters August 9 and was a hit with audiences. The film, adapted from the 2016 Colleen Hoover novel, earned $148 million in domestic box office, and $350 million globally, according to Box Office Mojo.

Lively broke out with the 2005 movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants opposite Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel and America Ferrera. That led to her high-profile role on the TV show Gossip Girl, which she starred on from 2007-2012.

She has also appeared in movies such as 2010’s The Town, 2016’s The Shallows, 2018’s A Simple Favor and 2020’s The Rhythm Section.

Prior to It Ends with Us, Baldoni was best known for playing the role of Rafael Solano on the TV show Jane the Virgin from 2014–2019. He also has directed films including 2019’s Five Feet Apart and 2020’s Clouds, and penned the 2021 book Man Enough, which tackled misconceptions of contemporary masculinity.