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The following contains spoilers from Deadpool & Wolverine currently in theaters.

The first R-rated release from Marvel Studios, Deadpool & Wolverine, is a bigger success than most people imagined it would be. It’s as classic an outing for the Merc With a Mouth as the films released before Disney purchased 20th Century Fox. The movie brings Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine, complete with comic accurate costumes. While hilarious and irreverent, the film is also an ode to the “bad” superhero movies of the past unceremoniously canceled and rebooted. In fact, very few fans are looking at Deadpool & Wolverine for how it contributes to and expands the multiversal lore in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The most lapsed MCU fan walked away from Deadpool & Wolverine knowing MCU anchor beings are important to its multiverse. However, sometimes the canon-obsessed fan can take this kind of larger-scale exposition a little too seriously. The source of this kind of information is just as important as the new MCU lore their dialogue reveals. While anchor beings exist in the MCU Multiverse, Deadpool & Wolverine subtly reveals they may not be as important or immutable as Mister Paradox suggested.

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Deadpool & Wolverine Critical Scores

Aggregator

Score

IMDB

8.0/10

Metacritic (Critics)

56

Metacritic (Users)

7.0

Rotten Tomatoes (Critics)

78%

Rotten Tomatoes (Users)

95%

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The clearest sign that anchor beings may not be as important to the MCU as some suggest comes from how Deadpool & Wolverine break that rule. Earth-10005 is the branch timeline in which the Fox X-Men continuity exists. Naturally, since Hugh Jackman’s Logan appeared in more movies in that universe than not, arguing he is its most important hero is not a stretch. However, his death in Logan seems to have undone whatever magic he possessed, causing that timeline to (eventually) erase itself from existence.

The MCU’s Multiverse is confusing, mostly because it’s relatively new (from both from the audience’s and TVA’s perspectives). The Sacred Timeline is the MCU as it existed before Avengers: Endgame introduced things like time travel and branched-off realities. However, since the events that created the multiverse took place outside the flow of normal time, it also means the MCU’s multiverse has always existed. In both situations, it’s up to the Time Variance Authority to oversee the timeline(s), specifically watching for beings who seek to disrupt the fragile balance of this multi-faceted existence.

Anchor beings are a new concept for TVA agents and Paradox’s bias against allowing the multiverse to exist may color his understanding of their purpose.

Of all the past Marvel projects, Loki‘s connection to Deadpool & Wolverineis the most important when it comes to the TVA. The organization was run more like a religious cult than a cosmic police force, at least before Loki finally found his throne. Mister Paradox is strongly implied to be a true believer of the way things used to be. He still uses the term Sacred Timeline. When he mockingly tells Deadpool about how the TVA used prune branch realities, it further implies that Mister Paradox approved of the way things used to be.

The TVA goons still have their pruning wands, which is how Logan and Wade end up in Alioth’s void. However, the pruning equipment that erased entire branch realities are no longer in use, so Paradox needs a new plan. Thus, the Time Ripper is the sci-fi device he hopes to use to erase Earth-10005 from existence. He even tells Deadpool doing so will prove to his superiors there is “a better way” than the current policy. Since it takes as many as “thousands of years” for a timeline to vanish after losing its anchor being, perhaps it’s not inevitable.

Famous MCU Movie ‘MacGuffins’

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The real thing that drives the plot of the movie is Deadpool’s search for a new Wolverine to fill the anchor being void. When Deadpool partners with the “worst Logan” audiences get another clue. Paradox incredulously asks Wade if he thinks he “can replace an anchor being with this.” He then says he “wouldn’t have accepted any other Wolverine” and especially not the film’s Logan. That he talks about acceptance at all implies there’s at least a theory anchor beings can be replaced.

When Paradox tells Deadpool nothing can stop the destruction of his universe, it’s fair for audiences to doubt him. Either he’s lying outright (as he did to Hunter B-15), or he simply disregards any internal TVA theories about potentially replacing anchor beings in dying universes. Also, fans can assume the new TVA is still unsure how much they should get involved in such things at all. Quite simply, the characters in Deadpool & Wolverineseem to have as many questions about how anchor beings work as the audience.

Reading between Mister Paradox’s lines, it seems like there was at least a chance some in the TVA believed an anchor being could be replaced. However, since no one seems to know what officially makes one an anchor being, attempting to do so is anyone’s guess. Taking an anchor being from a different reality would likely doom that one. (Unless, of course, some realities have more than one anchor being already.) It’s equally uncertain if a person who isn’t already an anchor being can become one. At least, it was until the end of Deadpool & Wolverine.

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How the other non-MCU Marvel heroes ended up in Alioth’s void is something left up to the fans to ponder. Given the relationship Mister Paradox has with Pyro, it implies that he’s at least aware of “the others” and that Earth-10005 wasn’t the first one erased or destroyed. These heroes tell Deadpool the TVA sent them to the void because they were the type of people who would fight to save their universes. But if a branch reality’s death is inevitable without an anchor being, why should it matter if they try to fight back at all?

The heroes in the Void Resistance could easily be the anchor beings of their universes.

While the line is a meta joke about Jennifer Garner’s and Ben Affleck’s divorce, Deadpool & Wolverine implies the latter actor’s Daredevil was in the void for a time. The anchor being for that universe is certainly either him or Elektra, who appeared in two films of that “franchise.” There’s no question that Wesley Snipes’s Blade was the anchor being of his corner of the multiverse. After all, he’s the only Blade there is at the moment.

Of course, the biggest clue about MCU anchor beings comes from the ending of Deadpool & Wolverine. After stopping the Time Ripper together, B-15 shows Wade and Logan their universe is healing. Her casual line about their work not being done perhaps suggests one or both of them are Earth-10005’s replacement anchor beings. If Deadpool and Wolverine can ascend to such cosmic importance just by learning the value of teamwork and friendship, it suggests the role of anchor being could be a mantle passed from one person to another.

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There are certainly many elements in Deadpool & Wolverine that can be considered canon to the MCU, including the anchor being concept. However, the most important story the film tells is a critique of how studios handle cinematic universes. The characters’ talk of being discarded and erased without getting “an ending” is a reflection of how the artists who made the pre-MCU movies felt about the inevitable reboots of their characters. In this context, an “anchor being” actually means “franchise star.” For the 20th Century Fox X-franchise, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine fits that bill.

The revitalization of Earth-10005 could be chalked up to getting Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in the MCU. Except, that rationale serves neither the meta narrative nor the straightforward MCU story. Who Deadpool and Wolverine are is not what saved this branch reality. Instead, it was what they did (or, perhaps, why they did it) that changed things on such a fundamental level. Setting aside why it happened, this means Wade’s universe either earned a new anchor being or, perhaps even better, it no longer needs one.

As a multiversal concept for the larger MCU, anchor beings are kind of silly. They work best as a metaphor for what keeps a movie franchise going in the real world. Deadpool & Wolverine, through its success, shows the only thing a branch reality needs to persist is the freedom to keep telling stories. However, anchor beings are part of MCU lore. Instead of a rigid rule in canon, the film strongly suggests that any hero can become an anchor being if the original dies or disappears. While a little silly, it builds on one of the most important themes in all superhero comics: everyone matters.

Deadpool & Wolverine is currently playing in theaters.

“}]] Deadpool & Wolverine seemingly introduces a crucial piece of lore to the MCU Multiverse, but is this new idea as important as the characters think?  Read More