NSYNC star addresses Justin Timberlake absence at Deadpool & Wolverine premiere

Band reunited at the movie premiere – without Timberlake

Members of the Nineties boyband NSYNC reunited at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere on Monday night – but former frontman Justin Timberlake was nowhere to be seen.

Bandmates Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick, JC Chasez and Lance Bass were seen posing on the red carpet alongside Gossip Girl star Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, who stars in the film, but Bass said on social media that Timberlake was “there in spirit”.

“Still waiting for our call to join the X-Force. Your move, @marvelstudios,” wrote the musician on Instagram, sharing the group photo. “(Not pictured @justintimberlake but here in spirit!)”

Lively said in the post’s comments that the picture captured the “single most complete moment of my life” to be alongside the NSYNC members, since she’s a longtime fan of the group. “I’ll shave my hair off and perm it bleach blonde. It’s fine. I can scrub in. I’m ready. This just feels right.”

Timberlake is currently on his The Forget Tomorrow World Tour in promotion of his sixth studio album, and his first in six years, Everything I Thought I Was. He will perform in Poland this Friday (26 August).

The rest of NSYNC seemed elated to be celebrating the new movie that stars Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson, and Hugh Jackman returning as Wolverine after his character was supposedly killed off in Logan in 2017. The film sees the duo take on Emma Corrin’s supervillain Cassandra Nova – the evil twin sister of Professor X.

NSYNC have a get-together at the ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ premiere (Getty Images for Disney)

While Lively and other celebrity guests, including Madonna and model Gigi Hadid, seemed impressed at the premiere, the film has received mixed reviews, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey giving the film a paltry two stars and calling it “tedious and annoying corporate merger of a film”.

The format of the film has been praised as “shattering the fourth wall into a million pieces”, according to The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw, who gave the movie three stars.

Timberlake returned to stage days after his arrest, telling fans it had been a ‘tough week’ (Getty Images)

“Deadpool was always the satiric turn – but this is a movie which more or less orders the audience to stop taking any of the proceedings seriously,” he wrote.

The “Sexy Back” musician’s tour has continued despite his arrest on 21 June for alleged drink driving in the wealthy Hamptons enclave of Sag Harbor, Long Island. When Timberlake returned to stage for the first time since his arrest days later, he told fans it had been a “tough week, but you’re here and I’m here, and nothing can change this moment right now”.

He continued: “I know sometimes I’m hard to love but you keep on loving me and I love you right back. Thank you so much.”

Timberlake, who rose to fame as one of the biggest pop stars of the 1990s and 2000s with NSYNC before embarking on a successful solo career, has been performing his smash-hits while on tour, including: “Can’t Stop The Feeling”, “Señorita”, and “Cry Me River”.