Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine introduces the new concept of “Anchor Beings” to the greater MCU multiverse. Serving as the key reason why Hugh Jackman is returning as Wolverine despite his death in 2017’s Logan, Deadpool’s entire mission in his new movie hinges on the necessity for anchor beings and their vital importance. However, there may even be a bigger role for anchor beings that has yet to be revealed following their debut in this new MCU movie.
In Deadpool & Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman finally get the team-up audiences have long been wanting, ever since 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Embarking on a multiversal adventure of epic proportions, it’s revealed that Deadpool needs Wolverine due to his vital importance as a potential “anchor being”. Here’s everything we know about “anchor beings” from Deadpool & Wolverine, and how they might play a role in the future of the MCU multiverse.
MCU Anchor Beings Are Important To Individual Universes
Holding Their Reality Together
According to the TVA’s Mister Paradox in Deadpool & Wolverine, “anchor beings” are select individuals of significance who are vital to holding the existence of their reality together. Once that being is killed or removed, their reality gradually begins to degrade without them. In the case of Earth-10005 aka Fox’s X-Men universe, that anchor being was none other than Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, the very same who died giving his life to save X-23’s Laura Kinney in 2017’s Logan.
While the decline of a reality sans its anchor being is said to take a couple of thousand years, Paradox is impatient and has instead created the Time Ripper, a device capable of deleting an entire reality instantaneously. However, Wade is offered the chance to integrate with Earth-616 and the Sacred Timeline, so long as he leaves his reality to its demise (something Deadpool naturally doesn’t do). Instead, Wade determines to find a new Wolverine from a different reality to come and serve as a replacement anchor being, hoping to effectively stabilize his world and save those he cares about.
Are Anchor Beings From Marvel Comics?
No, But They Could Be A Form Of Nexus Beings
While not directly from the original Marvel Comics, there are similar terms and concepts on the page that align quite well with this idea of “anchor beings” in the multiverse. Not unlike those who are known as singularities, anchor beings also have a lot in common with nexus beings. In the comics, nexus beings are rare individuals who can directly affect probability and the future, altering the flow of their respective timelines by creating key nexus events. Often wielding great power, nexus beings are closely monitored by the Time Variance Authority in the comics, and they are also said to help “anchor” their reality.
Keeping that in mind, it certainly does seem as though an anchor being could be a more official term for nexus beings in the MCU, though shows such as WandaVision have already implied that Wanda Maximoff’s Scarlet Witch was specifically a nexus being. There may be a distinction that has yet to be revealed on-screen. However, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige did recently suggest in an interview with Inverse that they may be two names that mean the same thing:
“I do think in the Marvel comics and in the MCU, there are beings of great importance. There are nexus beings that have been discussed, and in comic books there are omega-level mutants that have been discussed. I think a lot of that depends on where you are within the universe of what terminology you use.”
Based on these comments from Feige and how nexus beings are described in the comics, it wouldn’t be surprising if the two terms are related and perhaps even interchangeable in the MCU.
What Anchor Beings Mean For The MCU’s Multiverse Saga
Very Important To Multiversal Stability Ahead of Secret Wars
Given the presented facts from Deadpool & Wolverine that the removal of an anchor being can destabilize their entire reality, the implication is that there are certain individuals who are far more important than others. To that end, one has to wonder what might happen if too many anchor beings are killed and perhaps even targeted simultaneously, potentially resulting in cataclysmic events for the multiverse at large. As such, it certainly seems as though the concept of anchor beings has only just begun following its introduction in this new MCU movie.
As the MCU is nearing the culmination of its current Multiverse Saga with Avengers 5 and Avengers: Secret Wars, it follows that anchor beings will become a key piece in a much larger multiversal puzzle. It’s already been established that incursions and the collision of realities exist as an ongoing major threat to the multiverse. As such, it’s not hard to imagine a scenario where various anchor beings potentially assembling as the heroes best suited to prevent total multiversal collapse in the near future with these upcoming crossover event films, especially with the MCU’s culminating Secret Wars movie.
Who The MCU’s Main Anchor Being Could Be
Has Earth-616 Already Been Destabilized?
Wolverine being revealed as the anchor being of Earth-10005 and Fox’s main X-Men universe does pose an interesting question: who’s the main MCU anchor being of Earth-616? It certainly seems as though the best candidate would have been Tony Stark’s Iron Man who naturally became a focal point of the MCU’s entire Infinity Saga. However, Iron Man did sacrifice himself to save the world as seen in Avengers: Endgame, not unlike 10005’s Wolverine who sacrificed himself in 2017’s Logan to save his clone daughter Laura. If the anchor being was Iron Man, that would mean that Earth-616 has been in a gradual decline since Endgame.
The idea that Earth-616 has already lost its anchor due to Iron Man’s Endgame death is compelling. However, it’s just as possible that the anchor being is someone else entirely who still lives in the current MCU. In any event, it’s probably safe to assume that Marvel Studios has big plans in store for anchor brings following the exciting introduction of the concept in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in theaters.
